OK   THl'. 

University  of/  California. 

Received       (y/\.t^^,  >  t8g^. 

Accession  No.  7^0  6L^     -    Clciss  No. 


^S"VAjLjciLi 


THE  GOSPEL 


ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 


BY 


GEORGE    GRIFFIN,    LL.D. 


IsilVERSITx    1 


NEW    YORK: 
D.  APPLETON  &  COMPANY,  200  BROADWAY. 

PHILADELPHIA:  G.  S.  APPLETON,  164  CHESNUT  ST. 
1850. 


3S^^^ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1850,  by 

D.  APPLETON  &  COMPANY, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


•7^^  V^^ 


PREFACE 


It  may  be  justly  inferred  from  the  title-page  to 
this  volume,  that  it  treats  mainly  of  the  internal 
evidences  of  Christianity.  For  should  the  Gospel 
assume  the  form  of  a  living,  speaking  man,  and, 
like  Paul  before  Agrippa,  plead,  with  outstretched 
hand,  its  cause  before  the  countless  myriads  of 
human  kind,  it  would  doubtless  pJace  its  chief  reli- 
ance on  its  own  Sacred  Pagp^.  Nevertheless,  the 
author  will  not  deem  him5elf  precluded  by  the  title- 
page  from  sometimes  overstepping  the  line  generally 
regarded  as  the  h^undary  between  the  intrinsic  and 
external  dep<irtments  of  the  evangelical  proofs. 
Those  d^artments  are  not  hostile  or  foreign  territo- 
ries, in  their  mutual  relations ;  and  an  essay  on  the 
one  may  occasionally  invoke  aid  from  the  other, 
without  essentially  violating  the  laws  of  its  unity. 


IV  PREFACE. 

Nor  does  the  author  mean  to  profess  by  the  title- 
page,  that  he  is  about  to  condense  within  his  nar- 
row bounds  all  the  inherent  demonstrations  of  the 
divinity  of  the  New  Testament.  Those  demonstra- 
tions are  exceedingly  numerous ;  they  multiply 
under  every  fresh  perusal  of  the  Holy  Volume ;  and 
he  can  only  select  from  the  inexhaustible  storehouse 
such  views  as  have  most  forcibly  impressed  them- 
selves on  his  own  meditations. 

The  scriptural  prophecies,  and  their  stupendous 
fulfilments,  are  usually  classed  in  the  external  de- 
partment of  the  christian  proofs.  Yet  the  author, 
irrespective  of  mere  geographical  distinctions,  v/ould 
gladly  have  attetopted  their  discussion,  had  his 
limits  allowed  it.  Th«  argument  from  prophecy  is 
one  of  the  most  powerful  \^apons  in  the  armory  of 
sacred  truth.  The  christian  fathers  thought  it  even 
more  conclusive  than  that  founded  on  miracles; 
and  it  is  stronger  now  than  it  was  wheiv  the  fathers 
wrote.  It  has  gathered  new  confirmation  from  the 
lapse  of  centuries.  But  it  requires  a  minute  expo- 
sition of  all  the  predictions  of  the  Old  Testament^ 
as  well  as  of  the  New,  and  a  close  historical  survey 


PREFACE. 


of  their  wonderful  accomplishments,  perfected  and 
progressive.  The  subject  would  supply  ample  ma- 
terials for  an  independent  work  of  no  inconsidera- 
ble length.  Had  the  author  attempted  to  abridge 
it  within  his  brief  essay,  he  would,  by  mutilating, 
have  rendered  powerless,  so  far  as  in  him  lay,  the 
mighty  argument  founded  on  prophecy  fulfilled. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  L 

JESUS   CHRIST  WAS   A  REAL  PERSONAGE — AND  THE   OOSPKL  WAS 
PUBLISHED   AT  THE   TIME  IT  PURPORTS   TO  HAVE  BEEN. 

PAQB 

Heathen  testimonies — ^Passage  from  Tacitus — Its  gen- 
uineness admitted  by  the  infidel  Gibbon — Character  of 
Tacitus  as  an  historian — Suetonius — ^Pliny — His  let- 
ter to  Trajan — Trajan's  reply — Their  genuineness  ad- 
mitted by  Gibbon — Pontius  Pilate — Usage  of  republi- 
can and  imperial  Rome  for  procurators  of  provinces  to 
transmit  to  central  government  accounts  of  extraor- 
dinary events  vv^ithin  their  jurisdiction — Early  christian 
fathers  constantly  stated  that  Pilate  had  communicated 
to  Tiberius  an  account  of  Christ's  trial,  death,  and 
alleged  resurrection,  with  the  accompanying  prodigies 
— No  heathen  writer  ever  denied  existence  of  docu- 
ment— ^Yet  pagan  Rome  suppressed  it — ^Inference  inev- 
itable that  she  suppressed  the  document  because  it 
would  have  proved  the  prodigies  accompanying  the 
crucifixioD,  and  the  consequent  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,     15 


CHAPTER  11 

THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

Further  heathen  testimonies — Celsus  wrote  against 
Christianity  about  one  century  after  promulgation  of 
Gospel — Extracts  from  his  works — Admits  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  a  real  Personage — And  that  Gospel  was 
written  by  his  primitive  disciples — Admits  generally 
the  Gospel  history — ^Virtually  admits  its  miracles — 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Doctor  Doddridge's  estimate  of  the  extracts  from  Cel- 
sus — Porphyry  wrote  against  Christianity  about  the 
year  two  hundred  and  seventy — Speaks  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  a  real  Personage — and  of  Gospel  as  written  by  his 
primitive  disciples — Some  extracts  from  his  works — 
Emperor  Julian  wrote  against  Christianity  about  the 
year  three  hundred  and  sixty — Admits  reality  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  antiquity  of  Gospel — Extracts  from  his 
works — Jewish  testimonies — Josephus — The  Mishna 
— TheTalmuds, 40 


CHAPTER  III. 

DIVINE   REVELATION  WA8   COEVAL  WITH  THE   CREATION   OF  MAN. 

Any  supernatural  communication  from  God  a  divine  reve- 
lation— No  matter  what  its  form  or  subject — Human 
race  not  from  everlasting — Man  created  without  instinct 
of  brutes,  or  innate  ideas  to  guide  him — Our  primeval 
ancestors  at  their  creation  were  but  grown-up  infants 
— Utterly  inexperienced,  they  would  have  perished  from 
hunger,  thirst,  cold,  or  casualties,  without  supernatural 
instruction — Such  instruction  a  divine  revelation — Gen- 
eral expectation  of  heathen  world  before  birth  of  Christ 
that  moral  light  was  about  to  dawn,    .        .        .        .68 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  THEOLOGY  OF  THE   GOSPEL. 

Works  of  God  and  of  man  distinguishable  by  inspection 
— ^Whether  God  or  man  made  Gospel  is  determinable 
by  its  internal  evidence — Moral  attributes  of  God  not 
discoverable  by  reason — ^Yet  reason  perceives  divine 
truthfulness  of  their  delineation  in  Gospel — Style  of 
Bible — Atonement  beyond  mortal  contrivance — Yet 
when  revealed,  reason  must  recognize  it  the  work  of  God 
— The  Trinity — A  mystery  too  profound  and  startling 
for  impostors  to  have  incorporated  into  work  of  fiction,    83 


CONTENTS.  IX 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE   MORALITY   OF  THE    GOSPEL. 

PAOE 

Gospel  system  of  ethics  like  solar  system  in  fewness 
and  simplicity  of  its  principles — Consists  in  love  to 
God  and  love  to  man — Regulates  thoughts  and  intents 
of  heart — Disclaims  heroic  virtues — Places  humility  in 
front  rank  of  its  graces — Has  chivalry  of  its  own — Paul 
and  Julius  Csesar  contrasted — Other  evangelical  graces 
— Forgiveness  of  injuries — Universal  beneficence — 
Victory  over  world — Sanctions  of  Gospel,   .        .        .105 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   CHARACTER   OF  JESUS   CHRIST.  "■ 

Difficulty  of  delineating  character — Especially  that  of  per- 
fect man — ^Delineation  of  perfect  man  reserved  for  fisher- 
men of  Galilee — They  had  no  human  model — Difficulty 
enhanced  by  the  fact  that  the  Christ  of  the  Gospel  en- 
shrined the  second  person  of  the  Trinity — Infidelity 
gains  nothing  by  supposing  that  Christ  was  the  de- 
ceiver and  his  biographers  the  dupes — Enacting  perfect 
character  more  difficult  than  even  delineation  of  one — 
^  His  blftndp!^  jrnf>Q|cnf,sa^  lowliness  and  majesty — His 
humiliation  surpassed  what  mere  man  would  have  vol- 
untarily endured  or  conceived — His  piety — His  benig- 
nity— His  beneficence — Cases  of  Bartimeus — ^the  sin- 
ful woman  who  anointed  his  feet — the  prodigal  son 
— ^his  restoring  Lazarus  to  life — his  weeping  over  Jeru- 
salem,   128 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

Wisdom  of  Jesus  Christ — ^His  sermon  on  the  mount — 
Other  cases  of  his  unearthly  wisdom — ^He  was  the  pa- 

1# 


CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

iron  and  personification  of  holy  friendship — ^His  parting 
interview  with  his  disciples — His  simplicity — His  man- 
ner of  teaching — His  indifference  to  human  fame — Si- 
lence of  Gospel  concerning  his  personal  appearance,     .  143 


CHAPTER  VHL 

THE   SAME   SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

Trial  of  Jesus  Christ — His  grandeur  and  humility — Inci- 
dents of  his  trial — Conduct  of  Judas — No  other  traitor 
ever  induced  by  compunctious  visitings  to  commit  sui- 
cide— His  remorse  and  self-murder  were  dying  confes- 
sions of  the  innocency  and  godhead  of  his  Master — Fall 
and  penitence  of  Peter — Conduct  of  Pontius  Pilate — 
The  crucifixion  of  Jesus  Christ — He  spoke  seven  times 
from  the  cross — And  as  man  never  spoke — Bad  men 
could  not  have  forged  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ  if 
they  would — And  good  men  would  not  have  forged 
it  if  they  could — Extract  from  Rousseau,    .        .        .157 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   MIRACLES   OF  THE   GOSFEI.. 

Miracles  of  Christianity  internal  proofs  of  divinity — 
Science  of  juridical  evidence  applied  to  christian  his- 
tory— ^Writers  of  Gospel  not  deceived — Miracles  pal- 
pable to  senses — abiding  in  effects — infallible — no  col- 
lusion— open  and  public — continued  for  years  in  pres- 
ence of  friends  and  foes — ^Writers  of  Gospel  had  good 
sense  and  sound  understanding — Deposed  from  per- 
sonal knowledge — ^Paul  knew  with  certainty  whether 
miracles  of  his  conversion  and  those  wrought  by  him- 
self were  real — ^Writers  of  Gospel  eight  in  number — 
Testimonies  equivalent  to  judicial  depositions,     .        .177 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

PAGE 

Writers  of  Gospel  not  deceivers — Truth  has  a  manner  of 
its  own — ^Directness,  simplicity,  and  ingenuousness  of 
evangelical  vv^itnesses — -Examples  of  their  candor — 
Pureness  of  their  moral  character — Proved  by  their 
writings — ^by  history — by  the  confessions  of  infidels — 
Had  not  primitive  christians  been  of  pure  character, 
new  faith  would  not  have  outlived  its  Founder — ^Writ- 
ers of  Gospel  consistent  in  narratives,  doctrines,  and 
precepts,  without  studied  uniformity,  ....  200 

CHAPTER  XL 

THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

Writers  of  Gospel  had  no  motive  to  deceive — ^Not  moved 
by  revenge — or  prejudice — or  hope  of  temporal  emolu- 
ment— or  desire  to  gain  fame  by  tales  of  wonder — In- 
curred by  their  testimony  certain  obloquy,  privations 
and  sufferings,  and  probable  torture  and  martyrdom — 
Conditions  of  discipleship  foretold  from  beginning — 
Martyrdom,  though  not  always  proving  orthodoxy, 
proves  sincerity  of  victims, 216 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

Auxiliary  and  supplemental  witnesses  to  christian  mira- 
cles— Gospel  made  miracles  test  of  its  divinity — Age 
of  miracles  continued  about  seventy  years — ^During  mi- 
raculous age  all  christians  had  sure  means  of  ascertain- 
ing genuineness  of  miracles — Bore  testimony  to  their 
genuineness  by  perilous  adhesion  to  persecuted  faith — 
Miracles  the  evidences  of  title  to  the  promised  inheri- 
tance above — Seekers  after  truth  of  Gospel  would  scru- 
tinize closely  these  evidences  before  giving  up  all  to 
purchase  inheritance — ^Witnesses  to  miracles  thus  mul- 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

FAOE 

tiplied  to  many  thousands — Each  witness  testified  by 
his  act  as  strongly  as  he  could  by  his  pen  or  oath — Ar- 
gument of  Leslie  drawn  from  institutions  of  Baptism, 
Lord's  Supper,  and  christian  Sabbath — New  Testament 
and  Old  parts  of  same  system — ^If  Gospel  forged,  so 
were  Jewish  Scriptures, 229 

CHAPTER  XIII, 
huue's  objection  to  miracles. 
Miniature  of  Hume's  theory — ^Vagueness  in  his  use  of 
term  experience — General  uniformity  of  nature's  laws 
proved  by  human  testimony — So  may  any  exceptions 
to  that  uniformity — On  Hume's  theory  miracles  not  to 
be  believed  on  evidence  of  our  own  senses — Evidence 
of  senses  not  more  infallible  than  well-sustained  testi- 
mony of  our  fellow-men — Man  lives  in  world  of  mira- 
cles, and  is  himself  a  miracle — No  objection  to  miracles 
that  they  are  designed  to  authenticate  a  system  of  re- 
ligion— Such  miracles  imbued  with  intrinsic  probability 
— No  impostor  ever  founded  new  system  of  faith  on 
miracles, 244 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

THE   MIRACLE   OF   THE   NEW  BIRTH. 

Regeneration  wrought  by  special  power  of  Holy  Ghost 
against  laws  of  our  fallen  nature — It  is  a  miracle  en- 
dorsing and  authenticating  Gospel — Each  true  believer 
"  hath  the  witness  in  himself  that  he  has  been  born 
again,  and  that  Gospel  is  true — Miracle  of  new  birth 
evidence  to  all  the  world  of  Gospel's  truth — Each  par- 
ticipant of  eucharist  makes  solemn  affirmation  by  the 
act  of  participation  that,  according  to  his  best  belief,  he 
has  been  born  again — Such  affirmation  equivalent  to 
deposition  in  court — These  depositions  amount  to 
many  hundreds  of  millions — Deponents  all  deceivers, 
or  deceived;  or  else  new  birth  a  reality,  and  Gospel 
from  God — ^New  birth  standing  miracle,       .        .        .  259 


CONTENTS.  Xm 

CHAPTER  XV. 

THE    MORAL  INCONGRUITIES    OF   MAN. 

PAGE 

Man  in  his  moral  being  destitute  of  harmony  of  organiza- 
tion belonging  to  other  creations  of  God — Is  compound 
of  meanness  and  majesty — ^at  once  brutal  and  godlike 
— Elements  of  his  contrarious  nature  in  collision  with 
each  other — Philosophy  could  not  explain  the  enigma 
— Bible  explains  it — Man  made  upright  and  pure — ^but 
sinned  and  fell — Thoughts  on  the  apostasy — ^The  fall 
the  only  solution  of  mysteries  of  our  being — Sin  un- 
natural evil — Usurper  of  human  heart — Man  an  enemy 
to  God — hence  he  takes  his  name  in  vain — and  wor- 
ships idols — Man  not  originally  made  a  God-hater  by 
God  himself — Conscience  and  sin  not  twin  brothers  of 
same  birth — Gospel's  solution  of  mysteries  of  our  being 
proof  of  its  divinity — Cause  suggested  of  God's  delay 
in  final  punishment  of  sin, 280 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE   PROMULGATION   OP  THE   GOSPEL. 

Early  and  rapid  spread  of  Gospel  proved  by  Gospel  itself, 
and  by  secular  and  ecclesiastical  histories — Formidable 
impediments  to  its  progress — Was  exclusive  and  un- 
compromising— Opposed  to  prejudices  and  expectations 
of  Jews — Country  of  its  origin  awakened  prejudices  of 
gentiles — Heathen  superstition  deeply  entrenched  in 
minds  of  nations — Retainers  of  polytheism  roused  them- 
selves to  oppose  invasion  of  Christianity — Recoiling 
from  open  argument,  they  employed  foulest  slanders 
— Polytheism  closely  interwoven  with  civil  government 
— which  was  invoked  and  came  to  her  rescue — Roman 
empire  embraced  whole  civilized  world — Sufferings  in 
Nero's  gardens  specimens  of  other  sufferings — General 
population  joined  in  persecuting  christians — Intrinsic 
impediments  Gospel  had  to  encounter — Opposed  to 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

PAQB 

pride,  passions,  and  propensities  of  fallen  man — Gospel 
made  the  moral  reformation  of  its  votaries  a  test  of  its 
truth — and  that  in  an  age  of  universal  corruption — 
Human  instrumentality  employed  in  spread  of  Gospel 
inadequate  to  exigency — Its  promulgators  a  few  Jew- 
ish peasants — the  most  despised  members  of  a  despised 
nation — Contrast  between  martial  conquests  and  the 
conquests  achieved  by  Gospel, 297 


CHAPTER  XVn. 

THR   SAME   SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

Character  of  Gibbon  as  an  historian — Would  have  discov- 
ered any  defect  in  foundations  of  Christianity — Bound 
to  give  some  cause  of  prodigious  spread  of  Gospel — 
Denying  divine  agency,  he  assigned  five  causes  merely 
human — His  five  causes  stated — First  cause — Zeal  of 
primitive  christians — ^Was  met  by  counter  zeal  of  Jews 
and  heathen — Second  cause — ^Doctrine  of  future  life — 
Hell  revealed  by  Gospel  appalling  and  repulsive — Even 
its  heaven  not  suited  to  tastes  of  depraved  heart — Third 
cause — Miraculous  powers  ascribed  to  primitive  church 
— Arrogation  of  such  powers,  without  their  possession, 
a  fraud  easily  detected — Fourth  cause — Pure  morals  of 
early  christians — Their  pure  morals  proof  of  efficacy 
and  truth  of  Gospel — Gibbon's  attempt  to  explain  their 
pure  morals — Fifth  cause — Union  and  discipline  of 
christian  republic — No  federative  union  of  churches 
until  close  of  second  century — And  before  then  Gospel 
had  achieved  signal  triumphs — No  event  in  history 
parallel  to  primitive  spread  of  Christianity — Imposture 
of  Mohammed — ^Modern  missions,       ....  324 


THE 


GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

JESUS   CHRIST   WAS   A   REAL   PERSONAGE AND   THE   GOSPEL   WAS   PUB- 
LISHED  AT   THE  TIME   IT   PURPORTS   TO    HAVE   BEEN. 

Heathen  testimonies — Passage  from  Tacitus — Its  genuineness  ad- 
mitted by  the  infidel  Gibbon — Character  of  Tacitus  as  an  histo- 
rian— Suetonius — Pliny — His  letter  to  Trajan — Trajan's  reply — 
Their  genuineness  admitted  by  Gibbon — Pontius  Pilate — Usage 
of  republican  and  imperial  Rome  for  procurators  of  provinces 
to  transmit  to  central  government  accounts  of  extraordinary 
events  within  their  jurisdiction — Early  Christian  fathers  con- 
stantly stated  that  Pilate  had  communicated  to  Tiberius  an  ac- 
count of  Christ's  trial,  death,  and  alleged  resurrection,  with  the 
accompanying  prodigies — No  heathen  writer  ever  denied  exist- 
ence of  docvunent — Yet  pagan  Rome  suppressed  it — Inference 
inevitable  that  she  suppressed  the  document  because  it  would 
have  proved  the  prodigies  accompanying  the  crucifixion  and  the 
consequent  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Had  the  New  Testament  been  found  amidst  the 
ruins  of  Pompeii,  or  on  some  desert  island  unmarked 
by  human  footsteps,  the  finder,  though  ignorant  of 
its  previous  history,  must  have  inferred  its  inspira- 
tion from  the  originality,  holiness  and  grandeur  of 


16  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

its  contents.  Yet  would  he  have  been  aided  in  his 
exploration  of  the  Sacred  Pages  by  proof,  derived 
from  some  independent  and  sure  source,  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  not  a  fictitious  personage,  and  that  the 
newly  discovered  volume,  detailing  his  birth,  life, 
death,  resurrection  and  doctrines,  had  been  com- 
posed by  his  faithful  contemporaries.  We  have, 
therefore,  deemed  it  a  fitting  introduction  to  our 
remarks  upon  the  internal  evidences  of  Christianity, 
to  show,  from  the  direct  confessions  or  speaking  si- 
lence of  the  ancient  pagan  and  Jewish  enemies  of 
our  faith,  that  its  reputed  founder  actually  lived 
and  taught;  that  he  suffered  martyrdom  under 
Pontius  Pilate  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius  Caesar ;  and 
that  the  various  books  forming  the  Gospel  were 
written  and  promulgated  by  his  primitive  disciples. 
To  this  preliminary  object  we  shall  devote  the 
present  chapter  and  that  immediately  ensuing. 

The  great  fire  at  Rome  occurred  in  the  tenth 
year  of  Nero's  reign,  about  thirty  years  after  the 
crucifixion ;  and  the  tyrant  was  more  than  suspected 
of  being  himself  the  incendiary.  Forty  years  after 
the  fire,  Tacitus,  long  domiciled  in  the  imperial 
capital,  wrote,  under  the  form  of  annals,  his  history 
of  the  four  immediate  successors  of  Augustus. 
Speaking  of  the  conflagration,  and  of  the  efforts  of 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  17 

Nero  to  divert  suspicion  from  himself  by  substitu- 
ting in  his  place  some  feigned  criminals,  Tacitus 
says: 

"  With  this  view  he  inflicted  the  most  exquisite  torments 
on  those  men,  who,  under  the  vulgar  appellation  of  chris- 
tians, were  already  branded  with  deserved  infamy.  They 
derived  their  name  and  origin  from  Christ,  who,  in  the 
reign  of  Tiberius,  had  suffered  death  by  the  sentence  of  the 
procurator,  Pontius  Pilate.  For  a  while  this  dire  super- 
stition was  checked,  but  it  again  burst  forth,  and  not  only 
spread  itself  over  Judea,  the  first  seat  of  this  mischievous 
sect,  but  was  even  introduced  into  Rome,  the  common 
asylum  which  receives  and  protects  whatever  is  impm*e, 
whatever  is  atrocious.  The  confessions  of  those  who  were 
seized  discovered  a  vast  multitude  of  their  accomphces ; 
and  they  were  all  convicted,  not  so  much  for  the  crime  of 
setting  fire  to  the  city,  as  for  their  hatred  of  human  kind. 
They  died  in  torments,  and  their  torments  were  embittered 
by  insult  and  derision.  Some  were  nailed  on  crosses ; 
others  sewn  up  in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  and  exposed  to 
the  fiiry  of  dogs ;  others  again,  smeared  over  with  com- 
bustible materials,  were  used  as  torches  to  illuminate  the 
darkness  of  the  night.  The  gardens  of  Nero  were  destined 
for  the  melancholy  spectacle,  which  was  accompanied  with 
a  horse  race,  and  honored  with  the  presence  of  the  emperor, 
who  mingled  with  the  populace  in  the  dress  and  attitude 
of  a  charioteer.  The  guilt  of  the  christians  deserved,  in- 
deed, the  most  exemplary  punishment ;  but  the  public  ab- 
horrence was  changed  into  commiseration  from  the  opinion 


18        THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

that  those  unhappy  wretches  were  sacrificed,  not  so  much 
to  the  public  welfare,  as  to  the  cruelty  of  a  jealous  tyrant." 

We  have,  with  a  single  verbal  correction,  adopted 
Gibbon's  translation  of  this  memorable  passage. 
The  persecution  under  Nero  and  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  passage  from  Tacitus  are  admitted  by 
the  infidel  historian  of  the  *•'  Decline  and  Fall  of 
the  Roman  Empire,''  w^ho  says  : 

"  The  most  skeptical  criticism  is  obliged  to  respect  the 
truth  of  this  extraordinary  fact,  and  the  integrity  of  this 
celebrated  passage  of  Tacitus.  The  former  is  confirmed  by 
the  diligent  and  accurate  Suetonius,  who  mentions  the 
punishment  which  Nero  inflicted  on  the  christians,  a  sect 
of  men  who  had  embraced  a  new  and  criminal  superstition. 
The  latter  may  be  proved  by  the  consent  of  the  most  an- 
cient manuscripts ;  by  the  inimitable  character  of  the  style 
of  Tacitus ;  by  his  reputation,  which  guarded  his  text  from 
the  interpolations  of  pious  fi-aud ;  and  by  the  purport  of 
his  narration,  which  accused  the  first  christians  of  the  most 
atrocious  crimes,  without  insinuating  that  they  possessed 
any  miraculous  or  even  magical  powers  above  the  rest  of 
mankind."* 

To  appreciate  the  value  of  this  authenticating 
*  Gibbon's  Rome,  Vol.  II.  p.  399. 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  19 

testimonial,  we  must  bear  in  mind,  not  only  the 
profound  acquaintance  of  Gibbon  with  the  events 
and  writings  of  the  Augustan  age  and  his  conse- 
quent capacity  to  detect  any  interpolation  in  the 
Roman  classics,  but  also  his  virulent  hostility  to  the 
faith  of  the  cross,  to  which  the  world  is,  perhaps, 
indebted  for  his  immortal  work,  and  which  would 
have  impelled  him  to  expose  to  detestation  and  con- 
tempt any  imposture  favoring  the  new  religion,  and 
to  cast  its  obloquy  on  the  christian  name.  Nothing 
but  the  affectation  of  historic  impartiality  could  have 
wrung  from  him  his  concession  of  the  genuineness 
of  a  passage  so  adverse  to  the  hopes  of  infidelity,  so 
confirmatory  of  the  facts  of  the  Gospel. 

The  classic  Tacitus  was  a  stranger  to  the  treas- 
ures of  evangelical  truth.  It  is  not  likely  that  he 
ever  had  in  his  hands  a  copy  of  any  part  of  the 
Gospel.  Had  he  known  its  pure  ethics  and  sub- 
lime theism,  he  would  not  have  termed  it  a  "  dire 
superstition ;"  nor  would  he  have  condemned  the 
primitive  christians  "  for  their  hatred  of  human 
kind."  Even  Gibbon,  in  an  ostentatious  ebullition 
of  assumed  candor,  declares  : 

"  If  we  seriously  consider  the  purity  of  the  christian  re- 
ligion, the  sanctity  of  its  moral  precepts,  and  the  innocent 


20  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

as  well  as  the  austere  lives  of  the  greater  number  of  those 
who,  during  the  first  ages,  embraced  the  faith  of  the  gos- 
pel, we  should  naturally  suppose  that  so  benevolent  a  doc- 
tiine  would  have  been  received  with  due  reverence  even  by 
the  unbelieving  world ;  that  the  learned  and  polite,  how- 
ever they  might  deride  the  miracles,  would  have  esteemed 
the  virtues  of  the  new  sect ;  and  that  the  magistrates,  in- 
stead of  persecuting  would  have  protected  an  order  of  men 
who  yielded  the  most  passive  obedience  to  the  laws,  though 
they  declined  the  active  care  of  war  and  government."* 

But  Tacitus,  though  he  had  not  studied  the  Gos- 
pel, had  profoundly  studied  the  annals  of  his  country. 
Nothing  in  its  history  was  beyond  his  grasp  or  be- 
neath his  notice.  He  narrated  facts  with  a  pre- 
cision and  accuracy  never  surpassed  by  a  secular 
historian.  His  success  in  literature  was  equalled 
by  his  acquirements  in  the  science  of  human  nature. 
He  was  familiar  alike  with  the  court  and  with  the 
closet.  Born  only  about  twenty  years  after  the 
crucifixion,  he  was  almost  contemporary  with  Jesus 
of  Nazareth.  Upon  his  boyish  imagination  had 
been  impressed  the  tragedy  in  the  gardens  of  Nero ; 
his  manly  eye  had  watched  the  phenomenon  of  the 
Gospel's  progress ;  the  very  name  of  the  new  sect 

*  Gibbon's  Rome,  Vol.  II.  p.  374. 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  21 

pointed  to  their  Founder ;  no  peradventure  can  rest 
upon  the  facts  stated  in  the  extract  from  Tacitus. 
That  memorable  passage  is  plenary  proof  that  Jesus 
Christ  really  lived  and  taught  and  suffered  martyr- 
dom under  the  sentence  of  Pontius  Pilate  in  the 
reign  of  Tiberius ;  and  that  he  was  the  Author  of 
Christianity,  which  survived  his  crucifixion,  and, 
having  overspread  Judea,  had,  anterior  to  the  great 
conflagration,  made  its  entrance  into  the  imperial 
city. 

"  The  diligent  and  accurate  Suetonius,"  as  Gib- 
bon correctly  describes  him,  speaks  thus  of  the 
primitive  faithful  in  narrating  the  events  of  Nero's 
reign  ;  "  The  christians,  a  set  of  men  of  a  new  and 
mischievous  superstition,  were  punished." 

During  the  years  one  hundred  and  six  and  one 
hundred  and  seven  of  the  christian  era,  Pliny  was 
intrusted  by  the  emperor  Trajan  with  the  govern- 
ment of  Bithynia  and  Pontus,  distant  provinces 
upon  the  Euxine.  He  found  the  provinces,  not- 
withstanding their  remoteness  from  Judea,  filled 
with  christians,  and  in  one  of  those  years  wrote  to 
his  imperial  master  for  instructions  how  he  was  to 
proceed  with  them.  The  letter  of  Pliny  and  the 
answer  of  Trajan,  now  extant,  are  unquestionably 
genuine.     Even  Gibbon  admits  their  authenticity ; 


22        THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

and  thence  argues  in  favor  of  the  lenity  of  the  Ro- 
man government  towards  the  christian  sect.*  The 
letter  and  answer  are  familiar  to  every  scholar,  but 
they  cannot  be  too  often  in  print ;  and  as  we  may 
have  occasion  to  refer  to  them  in  various  parts  of 
our  argument,  we  here  present  them  entire  in  the 
nervous  translation  of  Milner : 

PLINY   TO    TRAJAN. 

"  Health.  It  is  my  usual  custom,  Sir,  to  refer  all  things 
of  which  I  harbor  any  doubts  to  you.  For  who  can  better 
direct  my  judgment  in  its  hesitation,  or  instruct  my  under- 
standing in  its  ignorance  ?  I  never  had  the  fortune  to  be 
present  at  any  examination  of  christians  before  I  came  into 
this  province.  I  am,  therefore,  at  a  loss  to  determine  what 
is  the  usual  object  of  inquiry  or  of  punishment,  and  to 
what  length  either  of  them  is  to  be  carried.  It  has  also 
been  with  me  a  question  very  problematical,  whether  any 
distinction  should  be  made  between  the  young  and  the  old, 
the  tender  and  the  robust ;  whether  any  room  should  be 
given  for  repentance,  or  whether  the  guilt  of  Christianity, 
once  incun'ed,  is  incapable  of  being  expiated  by  the  most 
unequivocal  retraction  ;  whether  the  name  itself,  abstracted 
from  any  flagitiousness  of  conduct,  or  the  crimes  connected 
with  the  name,  be  the  object  of  punishment.  In  the  mean 
time  this  has  been  my  method  with  respect  to  those  who 
were  brought  before   me   as   christians.     I  asked  them 

*  Gibbon's  Rome,  VoL  IL  p.  409,  410. 


HEATHEN   TESTIMONIES.  23 

whether  they  were  christians ;  if  they  pleaded  guilty,   I 
interrogated  them  twice  afresh,  with  a  menace  of  capital 
punishment.     In  case  of  obstinate  perseverance,  I  ordered 
them  to  be  executed.     For  of  this  I  had  no  doubt,  what- 
ever was  the  nature  of  their  rehgion,  that  a  sullen  and  ob- 
stinate inflexibility  called  for  the  vengeance  of  the  magis- 
trate.    Some  were  infected  with  the  same  madness,  whom 
on  account  of  their  privilege  of  citizenship,  I  reserved  to  be 
sent  to  Rome  to  be  referred  to  your  tribunal.     In  the 
course  of  this  business,  informations  pouring  in  as  is  usual 
when   they  are   encouraged,   more   cases   occurred.     An 
anonymous  hbel  was  exhibited  with  a  catalogue  of  names 
of  persons  who  yet  declared  that  they  were  not  christians 
then  or  ever  had  been ;  and  they  repeated  after  me  an  in- 
vocation of  the  gods  and  of  your  image,  which  for  this  pur- 
pose I  had  ordered  to  be  brought  with  the  images  of  the 
deities.     They  performed  sacred  rites  with  wine  and  frank- 
incense and  execrated  Christ,  none  of  which  things  I  am 
told,  a  real  christian  can  ever  be  compelled  to  do.     On 
this  account  I  dismissed  them.     Others,  named  by  an  in- 
former, first  affirmed  and  then  denied  the  charge  of  Christ- 
ianity, declaring  that  they  had  been  christians  but  had 
ceased  to  be  so,  some  three  years  ago,  others  still  longer, 
some  even  twenty  years  ago.     All  of  them  worshipped 
your  image,  and  the  statues  of  the  gods,  and  also  execrated 
Christ,  and  this  was  the  account  which  they  gave  of  the 
nature  of  the  rehgion  they  once  had  professed,  whether  it  de- 
serves the  name  of  crime  or  error ;  namely,  that  they  were 
accustomed  on  a  stated  day  to  meet  before  dayHght,  and  to 
repeat  among  themselves  a  hymn  to  Christ  as  to  a  god, 


24       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

and  to  bind  themselves  by  an  oath  with  an  obligation  of 
not  committing  any  wickedness,  but  on  the  contrary,  of  ab- 
staining from  thefts,  robb^ies  and  'adulteries ;  also  of  not 
violating  their  promise,  or  denying  a  pledge  ;  after  which 
it  was  their  custom  to  separate  and  meet  again  at  a  pro- 
miscuous, harmless  meal;  from  which  last  practice  they, 
however,  desisted  after  the  pubHcation  of  my  edict,  in 
which,  agreeably  to  your  orders,  I  forbade  any  societies  of 
that  sort.  On  which  account  I  judged  it  the  more  neces- 
sary to  inquire  by  torture  from  two  females,  who  were 
said  to  be  deaconesses,  what  is  the  real  truth,  but  nothing 
could  I  collect,  except  a  depraved  and  excessive  supersti- 
tion. Deferring,  therefore,  any  further  investigation,  I  de- 
termined to  consult  you.  For  the  number  of  culprits  is  so 
great  as  to  call  for  serious  consultation.  Many  persons  are 
informed  against  of  every  age,  and  of  both  sexes,  and  more 
still  will  be  in  the  same  situation.  The  contagion  of  the 
superstition  hath  spread,  not  only  through  cities,  but  even 
villages  and  the  country.  Not  that  I  think  it  impossible  to 
check  and  to  connect  it.  The  success  of  my  endeavors 
hitherto  forbids  such  desponding  thoughts  ;  for  the  temples, 
once  almost  desolate,  begin  to  be  frequented ;  and  the  sa- 
cred solemnities,  which  had  long  been  intermitted,  are  now 
attended  afresh ;  and  the  sacrificial  victims  are  now  sold 
everywhere,  which  could  once  scarce  find  a  purchaser. 
Whence  I  conclude  that  many  might  be  reclaimed  were 
the  hope  of  impunity  on  repentance  absolutely  confirmed." 


^m- 


k 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  25 


TRAJAN    TO    PLINY. 

"  You  have  done  perfectly  riglit,  my  dear  Pliny,  in  tlie 
inquiry  which  you  have  made  concerning  christians.  For 
truly  no  one  general  rule  can  be  laid  down,  which  will 
apply  itself  to  all  cases.  These  people  must  not  be  sought 
after.  If  they  are  brought  before  you  and  convicted,  let 
them  be  capitally  punished ;  yet  with  this  restriction,  that 
if  any  renounce  Christianity  and  evidence  his  sincerity  by 
suppHcating  our  gods,  however  suspected  he  may  be  for 
the  past,  he  shall  obtain  pardon  for  the  future  on  his  re- 
pentance. But  anonymous  libels  in  no  case  ought  to  be 
attended  to ;  for  the  precedent  would  be  of  the  worst  sort, 
and  perfectly  incongruous  to  the  maxims  of  my  govern- 
ment." 

The  letter  of  Pliny  was  written  about  seventy 
years  after  the  crucifixion ;  and  it  carries  along 
with  it  plenary  demonstration  that,  at  the  time  of 
its  date,  Christianity  had  thoroughly  pervaded  the 
provinces  of  which  he  was  governor.  He  says ; 
"Many  persons  are  informed  against  of  every  age 
and  of  both  sexes,  and  more  still  will  be  in  the  same 
situation.  The  contagion  of  the  superstition  hath 
spread  not  only  through  cities,  but  even  villages 
and  the  country."  He  affirms  that  until  the  adop- 
tion of  his  vigorous  measures  against  the  innova^ 
ting  faith,  the  temples  of  the  polytheists  had  been 

■■    ■■>   :^      2 


26  THE   GOSPEL    ITS    OWN   ADVOCATE. 

deserted,  their  profane  solemnities  long  intermitted, 
and  that  the  sacrificial  victims  could  scarcely  have 
found  a  purchaser.  This  strong  language  is  used 
without  limitation ;  it  is  applied,  not  to  particular 
sections  alone,  but  to  the  entire  countries  under 
his  jurisdiction. 

Nor  did  Pliny  intimate  that  the  evangelical  re- 
ligion had  just  risen,  like  a  sudden  meteor,  above 
the  horizon.  He  reports  that  some  of  the  prison- 
ers, though  they  had  denied  under  the  terrors  of 
threatened  death  that  they  were  then  christians, 
admitted  that  they  had  been  such  more  than  twenty 
years  before.  It  follows  that  more  than  twenty 
years  before  their  examination,  and  therefore  with- 
in the  first  half-century  after  the  crucifixion,  the 
Gospel  had  accomplished  its  triumphal  march  even 
to  the  sequestered  borders  of  the  Black  Sea.  The 
letter  of  the  Roman  governor  caused  no  surprise  at 
the  imperial  court.  The  emperor  treated  "  the 
contagion"  of  Pontus  and  Bithynia,  not  as  a 
strange  phenomenon  peculiar  to  those  provinces, 
but  as  a  noxious  poison  common  to  his  vast  do- 
minions. 

Pliny's  letter  illustrates  other  important  truths. 
It  shows  that  the  christian  church  revered  Jesus 
Christ  as  its  Founder,  and  worshipped  him  as  God ; 


« 


HEATHEN   TESTIMONIES.  27 

that  it  had  its  sabbaths,  its  officers,  its  regular 
assembhes,  its  code  of  theism  and  of  ethics;  that 
its  doctrines  and  precepts  enjoined  abstinence  from 
thefts,  robberies,  adulteries,  violations  of  promise, 
and  all  manner  of  wickedness ;  and  that  the  real 
believer  was  ever  ready  to  endure  the  torture  and 
the  death,  rather  than  abjure  his  faith. 

The  correspondence  between  the  provincial  gov- 
ernor and  his  imperial  master  does  not  speak  in 
terms  of  the  existence  of  any  christian  writings. 
But  the  inference  is  strong,  that,  at  that  enlightened 
period,  a  religious  system  so  completely  organized, 
embodying  such  a  code  of  doctrinal  and  practical 
truths,  professing  to  be  proclaimed  for  the  instruc- 
tion and  salvation  of  mankind,  would  not  have  been 
allowed  to  rest  for  seventy  years  after  the  death  of 
its  Founder  on  mere  oral  communication.  The 
Augustan  age  ended  not  with  the  life  of  Augustus ; 
but,  like  the  Elizabethan  era,  continued  long  after 
the  death  of  the  sovereign  from  whom  it  derived 
its  name.  It  was  an  age  distinguished  for  the 
written  effusions  of  mind.  For  the  sword  of  the 
iron  republic  had  been  substituted  the  pen  of  the 
lettered  empire.  It  would  have  been  passing 
strange  had  christian  zeal  and  intelligence  left  un- 
recorded, for  three  score  years  and  ten,  the  birth, 


28        THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

teachings,  miracles,  death  and  resurrection  of  the 
Son  of  God.  The  antiquity  of  the  evangehcal 
writings  is  a  necessary  deduction  from  the  corres- 
pondence between  Pliny  and  the  sovereign  of  the 
Roman  world. 

It  was  the  immemorial  usage  of  republican  and 
imperial  Rome,  that  each  governor  of  a  province 
should  transmit  to  the  central  authority  of  the  state 
official  accounts  of  all  extraordinary  events  occur- 
ring within  his  jurisdiction.  Of  this  custom  the 
letter  from  Pliny  to  Trajan  is  a  memorable  ex- 
ample. Such  usage  is  necessarily  incident  to  all 
states  possessing  conquered  or  detached  provinces. 
If  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  Christ  was  a  reality,  it 
was  an  extraordinary  event.  He  had  claimed  to 
be  a  divine  person,  and  the  author  of  stupendous 
miracles ;  his  disciples  publicly  announced  his  res 
urrection  from  the  dead.  These  things  were  with- 
in the  knowledge  of  Pontius  Pilate,  the  procurator 
of  Judea.  That  he  officially  communicated  to  Ti- 
berius  the  tale  of  wonders,  is  a  conclusion  to  be 
drawn  from  the  circumstances  of -the  case,  without 
the  aid  of  extraneous  evidence.  Had  he  omitted 
the  communication  he  would  have  violated  the  an- 
cient and  universal  usages  of  the  commonwealth 
and  of  the  empire ;  he  would  have  been  guilty  of  a 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  '    .    29 


gross  breach  of  official  duty ;  he  would  have  been 
justly  amenable  to  the  censure  of  the  emperor,  and 
to  ignominious  expulsion  from  office.  The  pre- 
sumption that  public  magistrates  have  duly  per- 
formed the  obligations  imposed  on  them  by  their 
respective  stations,  is  a  fundamental  principle  of 
universal  jurisprudence. 

But  the  intrinsic  presumption  that  Pilate  trans- 
mitted to  the  Roman  government  his  official  report 
of  the  life,  death,  and  alleged  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  confirmed  by  extraneous  evidence.  The 
fact  of  his  report  is  repeatedly  averred  by  the  early 
christian  fathers.  Speaking  of  the  wonderful  dem- 
onstrations which  agcompanied  the  crucifixion  of 
our  Lord,  Justin  Martyr,  in  his  first  Apology  for 
Christianity,  addressed  to  the  authorities  of  the  Ro- 
man empire,  about  the  year  one  hundred  and  forty 
of  the  christian  era,  thus  speaks  ;  "  And  that  these 
things  were  so  done,  you  may  know  from  the  acts 
written  in  the  time  of  Pontius  Pilat^."*  Tertullian 
in  his  Apology  for  the  new  faith,  also  addressed  to 
the  Roman  government,  and  written  ^bout  the 
year  one  hundred  and, ninety-eight,  speaks  thus; 
"  Of  all  these  things  relating  to  Christ,  Pilate,  him- 


*  Justin  Mariyr,  Apol  prftna,  p.  65, 12. 


30  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

self  in  conscience  already  a  christian,  sent  an  ac- 
count to  Tiberius,  then  emperor."*  And  else- 
where, in  the  same  chapter,  he  thus  appeals  to  the 
pagan  authorities ;  "  Search  your  own  public  doc- 
uments. At  the  moment  of  Christ's  death,  the  light 
departed  from  the  sun,  and  the  land  was  darkened 
at  noon ;  which  wonder  is  related  in  your  own 
annals,  and  is  preserved  in  your  archives  to  this 
day." 

Eusebius,  who  wrote  about  the  year  three  hun- 
dred and  fifteen,  speaks  in  this  manner ;  "  When 
the  wonderful  resurrection  of  our  Saviour  and  his 
ascension  to  heaven  were  in  the  mouths  of  all  men, 
it  being  an  ancient  custom  for  governors  of  prov- 
inces to  write  to  the  emperor  and  give  him  an 
account  of  new  and  remarkable  occurrences,  that 
he  might  not  be  ignorant  of  anything,  Pilate  in- 
formed the  emperor  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
and  likewise  of  his  reputed  miracles,  and  that,  being 
raised  up  after  he  had  been  put  to  death,  he  was 
already  believed  by  many  to  be  a  god.f  There- 
port  of  Pontius  Pilate  to  Tiberius  is  also  affirmed 
by  Epiphanius,  Chrisostom,  Orosius,  and  Gregory 
of  Tours. 

*  Tertullian,  ApoL  c.  21.  f  Euseb.  EccL  Hist.  lib.  11,  c.  2. 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  31 

Modern  infidels  have  affected  to  sneer  at  these 
statements  of  the  christian  fathers.  But  the  state- 
ments were  never  contradicted  by  the  heathen  in- 
fidels of  the  first  four  centuries.  Celsus  attempted 
an  elaborate  confutation  of  the  new  faith,  and  pub- 
lished his  treatise  about  the  year  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five,  and  thirty-five  years  after  the  appear- 
ance of  Justin  Martyr's  first  Apology.  The  pagan 
unbeliever  had  the  christian  work  before  him,  and 
must  have  studied  it  diligently,  page  by  page  and 
sentence  by  sentence.  Why  did  not  the  learned 
and  vindictive  Celsus  meet  and  contradict  the  bold 
appeal  of  Justin  Martyr  to  "  the  acts  written  in  the 
time  of  Pontius  Pilate?"  He  did  not  because  he 
dared  not.  By  such  contradiction  he  would  have 
come  into  direct  collision  with  the  public  records 
of  the  empire. 

About  the  year  two  hundred  and  seventy,  and  a 
little  more  than  seventy  years  after  the  publication 
of  Tertullian's  Apology,  heathen  infidelity,  personi- 
fied by  Porphyry,  one  of  its  most  renowned  cham- 
pions, made  its  second  great  effort  to  write  down 
the  faith  of  the  cross.  Open  before  the  eyes  of 
Porphyry  lay  the  writings  of  the  two  christian 
apologists ;  his  ears  he  could  not  close  to  the  chal- 
lenge of  Tertullian,  "  Search  your  own  public  doc- 


32  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

uments."  How  overwhelming  must  have  been  the 
triumph  of  the  pagan  combatant  could  he  have 
averred  and  shown  that  the  imperial  archives  con- 
tained not  the  pretended  report  from  the  procurator 
of  Judea.  How  would  the  christian  world  have 
been  humbled  and  confounded  as  it  gazed  on  the 
public  immolation  of  its  two  favorite  advocates  by 
infidel  hands,  not  as  martyrs  to  the  truth,  but  as 
fabricators  of  falsehood!  Yet  upon  the  pressing 
emergency,  the  wary  Porphyry  stood  speechless  as 
the  grave ! 

In  the  fourth  century,  and  about  fifty  years  after 
Eusebius  had  reiterated  the  standing  appeal  of 
evangelical  antiquity  to  Pilate's  official  report  of  the 
crucifixion,  the  apostate  Julian  brandished  his  im- 
perial pen  against  the  new  religion.  He  was  an 
accomplished  scholar  and  a  profound  statesman. 
His  own  experience  had  impressed  on  his  mind  the 
ancient  and  universal  usage  of  the  empire,  requir- 
ing from  governors  of  provinces  official  reports  of 
such  extraordinary  events  as  marked  their  admin- 
istrations. He  had  before  him  the  works  of  Justin 
Martyr,  of  Tertullian  and  of  Eusebius.  He  could 
not  be  ignorant  that  the  appeal  of  the  faithful  to 
the  report  of  Pontius  Pilate  had  been  sounded  and 
echoed  and  reverberated  along  the  track  of  centu- 


HEATHEN   TESTIMONIES.  33 

ries.  He  must  have  felt  the  pressure  of  the  appeal. 
Yet  even  the  emperor  Julian  passed  over  in  omi- 
nous silence  the  subject  of  that  memorable  letter 
from  the  governor  of  Judea  to  his  imperial  mas- 
ter, which,  unless  subtracted  by  pagan  cunning, 
still  survived  a  speaking  witness  from  his  own  ar- 
chives. 

It  is  a  principle  of  universal  justice  that,  if  a 
party  rightfully  demands  the  production  of  a  docu- 
ment in  the  possession  of  his  adversary,  its  non- 
production  creates  a  decisive  presumption  against 
the  party  withholding  it.  For  its  suppression  must 
have  been  prompted  by  views  incompatible  with 
the  development  of  truth.  This  principle  strongly 
commends  itself  to  the  common  sense  of  mankind. 
The  official  report  of  the  crucifixion,  transmitted 
by  Pilate  to  Tiberius,  was  a  document  perhaps  de- 
cisive of  the  great  controversy  between  Christianity 
and  unbelief  It  was  in  the  hostile  custody  of 
heathen  Rome,  who  ought  to  have  held  it  for  the 
common  benefit  of  all  her  subjects.  The  advocates 
of  primitive  Christianity  appealed  to  the  document, 
and  demanded  its  production,  and  named  the  place 
of  its  custody,  and  stated  its  momentous  contents. 
The  champions  of  paganism  remained  dumb  as  the 

idols  they  worshipped.     This  silence,  continued  for 

2* 


34       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

centuries,  was  a  virtual  confession  in  that  vast 
temple  of  justice,  whose  circumference  was  earth 
and  whose  canopy  was  heaven — made  in  the  pres- 
ence of  men,  angels  and  God — binding  through  all 
ages  of  time — that  the  christian  asseverations  of 
the  existence  and  contents  of  the  document  were 
"  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the 
truth." 

The  scriptural  account  of  the  conduct  of  Pon- 
tius Pilate  while  sitting  in  his  judgment  hall,  forti- 
fies the  belief  that  he  must  have  sent  to  his  impe- 
rial sovereign  just  such  a  report  as  the  early  chris- 
tian fathers  affirmed.  At  the  close  of  the  trial  of 
his  Creator,  he  could  not  choose  but  "  believe  and 
tremble."  Then  followed  the  rending  of  the  rocks, 
the  quaking  of  the  earth  and  the  darkening  of  the 
sun,  so  demonstrative  of  the  divinity  of  the  Cruci- 
fied. To  none  of  these  events  was  the  Roman 
governor  a  stranger.  Nor  could  he  have  closed 
his  ears  to  the  startling  intelligence  that  the  dead 
had  risen  to  life.  In  his  communication  to  the  im- 
perial government,  he  would  not  have  been  likely 
to  suppress  the  astounding  miracles,  or  his  own 
conviction  that  the  condemned,  the  executed,  the 
resuscitated  Martyr  was  the  Son  of  God.  No 
wonder  that  heathen  Rome  suppressed,  and  finally 


HEATHEN   TESTIMONIES.  35 

destroyed  the  procurator's  official  report.  For,  to 
the  impartial  students  of  truth,  the  report  of  Pontius 
Pilate  would  have  demonstrated,  not  only  the 
existence  and  martyrdom  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  even 
his  very  godhead. 

Modern  unbelief  may  possibly  suggest  that,  the 
original  works  of  Celsus,  Porphyry  and  Julian  be- 
ing lost,  we  have  no  grounds  at  the  present  day  for 
the  conclusion  that  they  did  not  controvert  Pilate's 
alleged  letter  to  Tiberius.  But  such  conclusion  is 
sustained,  not  only  by  the  copious  fragments  of 
those  infidel  works  transcribed  and  preserved  in 
various  christian  writings,  but  also  by  the  control- 
ling fact  that,  while  the  works  of  Celsus,  Porphyry 
and  Julian  remained  entire,  christian  authors 
went  on  for  centuries  reiterating  the  charge  of  the 
letter  from  the  procurator  of  Judea  to  the  Roman 
emperor,  without  the  slightest  intimation  that  the 
existence  of  the  letter  had  ever  been  controverted 
or  doubted.  Had  Celsus  denied  the  charge  of 
Justin  Martyr,  TertuUian,  who  wrote  about  twen- 
ty-five years  after  Celsus,  would  not  have  dared 
to  repeat  it,  without  some  allusion  to  its  nega- 
tion. Had  Porphyry  denied  the  charge,  it  would 
not  have  been  again  unqualifiedly  repeated  by 
Eusebius,  who  wrote  about  forty-five  years  after 


36  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

Porphyry.  And  had  the  emperor  Julian  about  the 
year  three  hundred  and  sixty,  denied  the  charge, 
it  would  not  have  been  still  repeated  by  Epipha- 
nius,  who  wrote  about  the  year  three  hundred  and 
seventy,  and  by  Chrisostom,  who  wrote  about  the 
year  four  hundred,  and  by  Orosius,  who  wrote 
about  the  year  four  hundred  and  twenty,  and  by 
Gregory  of  Tours,  who  wrote  about  the  year  five 
hundred  and  seventy. 

Even  when  Epiphanius,  Chrisostom,  Orosius  and 
Gregory  gave  their  writings  to  the  world,  the 
works  of  Celsus,  Porphyry  and  Julian  were  still  in 
being.  If  the  existence  of  the  alleged  letter  from 
Pilate  to  Tiberius  had  been  controverted  by  Celsus, 
Porphyry,  or  Julian,  the  two  former  the  semi- 
official organs,  and  the  latter  the  imperial  sovereign 
of  the  pagan  world,  no  christian  author  would 
afterwards  publicly  affirm  its  existence  without 
some  reference  to  its  having  been  denied.  The 
omission  of  such  reference  would  have  betrayed  a 
want  of  honor  and  honesty  ;  and  the  breach  of 
good  faith  must  have  led  to  detection  and  exposure 
by  heathen  or  Jewish  enemies,  to  the  lasting  dis- 
credit of  the  christian  name.  Upon  the  supposi- 
tion of  its  having  been  denied  in  the  face  of  the 
world  the  existence  of  the  letter  was  no  longer  an 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  37 

unquestioned  fact ;  and  its  subsequent  averment  as 
an  unquestioned  fact  would  have  impugned  the 
principles  of  common  integrity.  Policy,  if  not  con- 
science, would  have  deterred  any  christian  author 
from  the  commission  of  such  a  barefaced  breach  of 
candor.  It  is,  then,  an  inevitable  conclusion,  that 
the  official  report  of  Pilate  to  the  Roman  emperor 
was  not  controverted  by  any  pagan  author  of  an- 
cient times. 

There  was  a  rumor  in  the  early  church  that, 
upon  receiving  the  report  from  the  governor  of 
Judea,  Tiberius  proposed  to  the  senate  that  Jesus 
Christ  should  be  enrolled  on  the  calendar  of  Roman 
gods ;  and  that  the  senate  declined  the  proposition 
because  they  held  it  to  be  their  privilege,  and  not 
the  prerogative  of  the  emperor,  to  nominate  the 
candidates  for  deification  ;  and  more  especially  be- 
cause Tiberius  had  himself  declined  the  acceptance 
of  that  honor  from  the  Roman  senate.  Some  mod- 
ern writers,  deeming  the  rumor  improbable,  have 
sought  thence  to  cast  a  shade  of  suspicion  upon  the 
fact  of  Pilate's  report.  But  between  the  fact  and 
the  floating  rumor,  no  real  affinity  exists.  The 
rumor  was  probably  true;  but,  if  unfounded,  its 
falsity  affects  not  the  impregnable  reality  of  the 
official  report.     Faith  in  history,  if  disturbed  by 


38  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

unimportant  errors  in  collateral  details,  would  be 
in  danger  of  degenerating  into  universal  and  cheer- 
less skepticism. 

Our  argument  rests,  not  on  the  subsequent  acts 
of  Tiberius  or  of  his  senate,  but  on  the  original 
letter  of  Pontius  Pilate,  written  in  his  official  ca- 
pacity and  filed  in  the  archives  of  the  empire.  It 
is  the  Roman  procurator  of  Judea — who  presided 
at  the  trial  of  Him  of  Nazareth,  and  marked  well 
his  godlike  look  and  bearing — who  felt  the  shudder- 
ing of  the  earth,  and  saw  the  obscuration  of  the 
physical  sun  when  the  Sun  of  righteousness  expired 
— that  we  invoke  as  a  paramount  witness  to  the 
being  and  crucifixion  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  truth 
of  our  holy  religion.  Pontius  Pilate  has  indeed 
gone  to  his  long  account.  But  he  left  his  solemn 
attestation  behind  him — signed  by  his  own  hand — 
authenticated  under  his  oath  of  office — recording 
at  the  time  and  place  of  their  occurrence  the  as- 
tounding demonstrations  of  which  his  own  senses 
had  taken  cognizance.  That  this  transcendent 
document,  required  by  the  immemorial  usages  of 
republican  and  imperial  Rome,  was  drawn,  signed, 
sealed  and  sent  to  the  emperor,  and  lodged  in  the 
depository  of  the  national  records,  was  expressly 
and  continually  affirmed  by  the  primitive  church, 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  39 

and  unequivocally  admitted  by  the  expressive  si- 
lence of  heathen  antiquity. 

We  will  venture  to  suggest,  though  with  defer- 
ence, that  possibly  the  argument  derived  from  the 
official  communication  of  Pontius  Pilate  to  the  Ro- 
man emperor,  may  not  have  been  pressed  by  mod- 
ern advocates  of  the  Gospel,  quite  as  strenuously 
as  its  importance  would  seem  to  justify.  In  our 
estimate,  that  communication  holds  a  conspicuous 
place  among  the  christian  proofs. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE   SAME   SUBJECT   CONTINUED. 


Further  heathen  testimonies — Celsus  wrote  against  Christianity 
about  one  century  after  promulgation  of  Gospel — Extracts  from 
his  works — Admits  that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  real  personage — 
And  that  Goppel  was  written  by  his  primitive  disciples — Admits 

•  generally  the  gospel  history — Virtually  admits  its  miracles — 
Doctor  Doddridge's  estimate  of  the  extracts  from  Celsus — Por- 
phyry wrote  against  Christianity  about  the  year  two  hundred 
and  seventy — Speaks  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  real  personage — And 
of  Gospel  as  written  by  his  primitive  disciples — Some  extracts 
from  his  works — Emperor  Julian  wrote  against  Christianity 
about  the  year  three  hundred  and  sixty — Admits  reality  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  antiquity  of  Gospel — Extracts  from  his  works — 
Jewish  testimonies — Josephus — The  Mishna — The  Talmuds. 

The  demonstration  from  heathen  testimonials 
that  Jesus  Christ  was  not  a  fictitious  personage, 
and  that  the  Gospel  was  composed  and  published  by 
his  faithful  contemporaries,  will  be  rendered  more 
perfect  by  a  closer  review  of  the  fragments  trans- 
mitted to  us  from  the  works  of  the  three  distin- 
guished unbelievers  who  wrote  elaborate  treatises 
against  Christianity  during  the  earliest  centuries  of 
the  church.  We  shall  now  present  copious  ex- 
tracts from  these  fragments.     Most  of  the  proposed 


HEATHEN   TESTIMONIES.  41 

extracts  are  irreverent ;  and  some  of  them  are  pro- 
fane. We  should  not  stain  our  pages  with  quota- 
tions offensive  to  pious  feehng,  were  it  not  for  the 
consideration  that  we  thence  derive,  even  from  the 
confessions  of  the  primitive  enemies  to  our  holy 
faith,  overwhelming  evidence,  never  to  be  gain- 
sayed  even  by  skepticism  itself,  that  the  Gospel 
was  not  the  forgery  of  an  age  posterior  to  its  as- 
sumed date,  and  that  its  Founder  actually  lived  and 
taught  and  suffered.  We  hope  thus  to  transmute 
into  healthful  aliment  the  poison  of  infidel  impiety. 
There  is  a  potency  in  confessions  from  hostile  lips, 
deliberately  and  intelligently  made,  which  place 
them  almost  at  the  head  of  human  proofs.  "  Out 
of  thy  own  mouth  will  I  judge  thee/'  was  a  process 
of  conviction  strikingly  approved  by  him  who  spake 
as  never  man  spake. 

The  pagan  Celsus  published  his  voluminous  and 
labored  argument  against  Christianity  about  the 
year  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  of  the  christian 
era.  It  was  called  "  The  True  Word."  About 
sixty  years  after  its  appearance  Origen  wrote  his 
memorable  response  in  eight  books.  The  treatise 
of  Celsus  has  perished ;  but  while  it  remained  in 
existence,  Origen  copied  from  it  into  his  answer 
numerous  passages.    Through  the  answer  of  Ori- 


42        THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE, 

gen  we  are  made  acquainted  with  the  work  of 
Celsus. 

It  is  a  rule  of  natural  and  universal  jurisprudence, 
that  whenever  the  original  is  lost,  its  contents  may- 
be shown  by  a  verified  copy  or  parol  proof.  This 
rule  is  a  vital  element  of  the  social  structure.  No- 
thing human  is  beyond  the  reach  of  casualty.  Mer- 
cantile instruments,  sealed  bonds,  testamentary 
bequests,  title  papers  to  real  estate,  legislative  rec- 
ords, may  all  be  destroyed  by  conflagration  or 
perish  in  the  current  of  time.  Unless  lost  origi- 
nals could  be  supplied  by  parol  proof  or  verified 
copies,  society  must  relapse  into  its  primeval  dis- 
organization. 

No  copy  could  be  better  authenticated  than  are 
the  extracts  from  Celsus  transcribed  into  the  work 
of  Origen.  He  had  the  original  before  him.  The 
question  discussed  was  of  absorbing  interest,  and 
he  knew  that  the  original  and  his  response  would 
be  anxiously  studied  by  friend  and  foe.  He  stood 
pledged  as  a  man  and  as  a  christian  that,  when  he 
professed  to  quote  the  words  of  his  adversary,  he 
quoted  them  truly.  Any  designed  misquotation 
would  have  been  suicidal ;  detection  must  inevi- 
tably have  followed ;  and  the  fraud  would  have  re- 
coiled like  a  thunderbolt  upon  his  own  head.     His 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  43 

great  work  bears  intrinsic  demonstrations  of  honor 
and  candor.  His  extracts  from  Celsus  are  equiva- 
lent to  copies  verified  by  oath.  A  judicial  affirma- 
tion could  have  imparted  to  them  no  additional 
sanctity. 

The  passages  from  Celsus  transcribed  into  the 
pages  of  Origen  leave  no  possibility  of  doubt  that 
the  Gospel  v^as  in  existence  anterior  to  the  time 
when  the  infidel  wrote.  His  writings  show  that  he 
had  studied  it  with  a  diligent,  though  prejudiced 
eye.  He  could  not  thus  have  studied  it  unless  it 
had  been  antecedently  in  being.  He  could  not 
have  answered  writings  not  then  extant.  Celsus 
introduces  into  his  work  a  fictitious  Jew,  who  is 
often  made  his  speaker.  In  our  quotations  we 
need  not  distinguish  between  the  passages  profess- 
edly uttered  by  Celsus,  and  those  purporting  to 
come  from  the  mouth  of  the  Jew ;  in  either  case 
they  are  alike  the  words  of  the  heathen  philosopher. 

Extracts  from  Celsus  follow : — 

"  I  could  say  many  things  concerning  the  affairs  of  Jesus, 
and  those  too  true,  different  from  those  wiitten  by  the 
disciples  of  Jesus."  "  It  is  a  fiction  of  theirs"  (the  writers 
of  the  Gospel)  "  that  Jesus  foreknew  and  foretold  all  things 
which  befell  him."  "  Some  of  the  believers,  as  if  they  were 
drunk,  take  a  liberty  to  alter  the  gospel  from  its  first  wri- 


44  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

ting  three  or  four  ways,  or  oftener,  that,  when  they  are 
pressed  hard  and  one  reading  has  been  confuted,  they  may 
disown  that  and  flee  to  another."  "  These  things  then  we 
have  alleged  to  you  out  of  your  own  writings,  not  needing 
any  other  witnesses.  Thus  you  are  beaten  with  your  own 
weapons."  "  He"  (Jesus)  "  threatens  and  feebly  reproaches 
when  he  says,  '  Woe  unto  you,'  and  '  I  foretell  unto  you :" 
for  thereby  he  plainly  confesseth  his  disabihty  to  persuade ; 
which  is  so  far  below  a  God,  that  it  is  even  unworthy  a 
wise  man."  "  O  light !  O  truth  !  Jesus  with  his  own 
mouth  expressly  declares  these  things  as  you  have  recorded 
it,  that  there  will  come  unto  you  other  men,  with  like 
wonders,  wicked  men  and  impostors."  "  Moses  encoura- 
geth  the  people  to  get  riches  and  destroy  their  enemies. 
But  his"  (God's)  "  Son,  the  Nazarean  man,  delivers  quite 
contrary  laws.  Nor  will  he  admit  a  rich  man,  or  one  that 
affects  dominion,  to  have  access  to  his  Father.  Nor  will  he 
allow  men  to  take  more  care  for  food  or  treasure  than  the 
ravens ;  nor  to  provide  for  clothing,  so  much  as  the  lilies  : 
and  to  him  that  has  smitten  once,  he  directs  to  offer  that 
he  may  smite  again."  "  To  the  sepulchre  there  came  two 
angels,  as  is  said  by  some,  or,  as  by  others,  one  only."  "  It 
is  but  a  few  years  since  he  delivered  this  doctrine,  who  is 
now  reckoned  by  the  christians  to  be  the  Son  of  God." 
"  Having  been  turned  out  of  doors  by  her  husband,  she," 
(the  mother  of  our  Lord)  "  wandered  about  in  a  shameful 
manner  till  she  had  brought  forth  Jesus  in  an  obscure 
place  ;  and  he  being  in  want,  served  in  Egypt  for  a  liveli- 
hood ;  and  having  there  learned  some  charms,  such  as  the 
Egyptians  were  fond  of,  he  returned  home,  and  then  valu- 


-^'m 


HEATHEN   TESTIMONIES.  45 

ing  himself  upon  those  charms,  he  set  up  himself  for  a  God." 
"  It  was  given  out  by  Jesus,  that  Chaldeans  were  moved  at 
the  time  of  his  birth  to  come  and  worship  him  as  a  God 
when  he  was  but  a  httle  child,  and  that  this  was  told  to 
Herod  the  tetrarch,  who  issued  out  an  order  to  have  all 
killed  who  had  been  born  about  that  time,  intending  to 
kill  him  with  the  rest,  lest,  if  he  should  live  to  mature  age, 
he  should  take  the  government."     "  What  occasion  had 
you"  (Jesus)  "when  an  infant,  to  be  carried  into  Egypt, 
lest  you  should  be  killed  ?     A  God  has  no  reason  to  be 
afraid  of  death.     And  now  an  angel  comes  from  heaven  to 
direct  you  and  your  relations  to  flee  into  Egypt,  lest  you 
should  be  taken  up  and  put  to  death  ;  as  if  the  great  God, 
who  had  already  sent  two  angels  upon  your  account,  could 
not  have  preserved  you,  his  own  Son,  at  home."     "  But  if 
he"  (Herod)  "  was  afraid  that  when  you  was  come  of  age 
you  should  reign  in  his  stead,  why  did  you  not  reign  when 
you  was  of  age  ?     But  so  far  from  that,  the  Son  of  God 
wandei-s  about,  cringing  like  a  necessitous  beggar."     "  You 
say  that  when  you  was   washed  by  John,  there   hghted 
upon  you  the  appearance  of  a  bird.     What  credible  wit- 
ness has  said  that  he  saw  this  ?     Or  who  heard  the  voice 
from  heaven  declaring  you  to  be  the  Son  of  God  excepting 
yourself :  and  if  you  are  to  be  credited,  one  other  of  those 
who  have  been  punished  like  yourself."     "  Jesus  taking  to 
himself  ten  or  eleven  abjects,  vile  publicans  and  sailors, 
went  about  with  them,  getting  his  subsistence  in  a  base  and 
shameful  manner."     "  How  should  we  take  him  for  a  God 
who,  as  we  have  understood,  pertbrmed  none  of  those  things 
which  were  promised  ?     But  when  we  have  judged  him 


46        THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

guilty  and  would  bring  him  to  punishment,  though  he 
shamefully  hid  himself  and  fled  away,  yet  was  taken,  being 
betrayed  by  those  whom  he  called  his  disciples.  But  it 
became  not  a  God  to  flee,  nor  to  be  taken  and  executed  ; 
least  of  all  did  it  become  him  to  be  deserted  and  betrayed 
by  his  companions,  who  knew  all  his  secrets,  who  followed 
him  as  their  master,  who  esteemed  him  a  saviour  and  the 
Son  and  messenger  of  the  most  high  God."  "  If  he  fore- 
told who  should  betray  him  and  who  should  deny  him, 
how  came  it  to  pass  that  they  did  not  fear  him  as  a  God, 
so  that  the  one  should  not  dare  to  betray  him  nor  the 
other  to  deny  him  ?  But  they  betrayed  him  and  denied 
him ;  so  little  did  they  regard  him."  "  It  was  God  who 
foretold  these  things  ;  therefore  there  was  a  necessity  that 
they  should  come  to  pass.  God  therefore  compelled  his 
own  disciples  and  prophets,  with  whom  he  ate  and  drank, 
to  be  wicked  and  abominable,  for  whose  welfare  above  all 
others  he  ought  to  have  been  concerned.  Never  did  man 
betray  another  with  whom  he  sat  at  table.  Here  he  who 
sits  at  table  with  God  betrays  him,  and,  which  is  still  worse, 
God  himself  lays  snares  for  those  who  sit  at  table  with  him, 
making  them  impious  traitors."  "  If  he  thought  fit  to  un- 
dergo such  things,  and  if,  in  obedience  to  the  Father,  he 
suffered  death,  it  is  apparent  that  they  could  not  be  pain- 
ful and  grievous  to  him,  he  being  a  God  and  consenting  to 
them.  Why  then  does  he  lament  and  bewail,  and  pray 
that  the  fear  of  destruction  may  be  removed,  saying  to  this 
purpose,  O  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  away  ?" 
"  Why  did  he  not  now,  at  last,  if  not  before,  deliver  him- 
self from  this  ignominy,  and  do  justice  upon  them  who  re- 


HEATHEN   TESTIMONIES.  47 

viled  both  him  and  liis  Father  ?"  "  They  who  conversed 
with  him  when  ahve,  and  heard  his  voice  and  followed  him 
as  their  master,  when  they  saw  him  under  punishment  and 
dying,  were  so  far  from  dying  with  him,  or  for  him,  or 
being  induced  to  despise  sufferings,  that  they  denied  they 
were  his  disciples;  but  now-a-days  you  die  with  him." 
"  But  let  us  consider  whether  any  one  that  has  really  died 
ever  rose  again  in  the  same  body,  unless  you  think  that  the 
stories  of  others  are  indeed,  as  well  as  seem  to  be,  fables, 
while  your  fable  is  probable  and  credible  because  of  his 
voice  on  the  cross  when  he  expired,  and  the  earthquake  and 
the  darkness;  and  because  that  when  he  was  living  he 
could  not  defend  himself,  but  after  he  was  dead  he  arose 
and  showed  the  marks  of  his  punishment,  and  how  his 
hands  had  been  pierced.  But  who  saw  all  this  ?  Why,  a 
distracted  woman,  as  you  say,  and  one  or  two  of  the  same 
imposture,  and  some  dreamers,  who  fancied  they  saw 
things  as  they  desired  to  have  them,  the  same  that  has 
happened  to  innumerable  people."  "If  he  would  make 
manifest  his  divine  power,  he  should  have  shown  himself  to 
them  that  derided  him,  and  to  him  that  condemned  him, 
and  indeed  to  all ;  for  surely  he  had  no  reason  to  fear  any 
mortal  blow  now  after  he  had  died,  and,  as  you  say,  was  a 
God."  "  When  he  was  neglected  in  the  body,  he  was  con- 
tinually preaching  to  all  men ;  but  when  he  should  have 
given  full  assurance  to  all  men,  he  shows  himself  to  one 
woman  and  his  associates."  "  When  he  was  punished  he 
was  seen  of  all,  but  when  risen,  by  one ;  the  contrary  to 
which  ought  rather  to  have  been."  "  If  he  would  be  hid, 
why  was  there  a  voice  from  heaven  declaring  him  to  be  the 


oj^  run     ' 


I^NIVEBSI 


48  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

Son  of  God  ?  And  if  he  would  not  be  hid,  why  did  he  suf- 
fer, why  did  he  die  ?  Is  it  not  exceeding  absurd,  that  you 
should  desire  and  hope  for  the  resurrection  of  the  same  body, 
as  if  we  had  nothing  more  excellent,  nor  more  precious  ?" 
"  Omitting  many  things  that  might  be  alleged  against  what 
they  say  of  their  master,  let  us  allow  him  to  be  truly  an  angel. 
Is  he  the  first,  and  the  only  one  that  has  come  ?  or  have 
there  been  others  before  ?  If  they  should  say,  he  only, 
they  are  easily  convicted  of  falsehood :  for  they  say  that 
others  have  often  come,  and  in  particular,  that  there  came 
an  angel  to  his  sepulchre,  some  say  one,  others  two,  to  tell 
the  women  that  he  was  risen ;  for  the  Son  of  God,  it  seems, 
could  not  open  the  sepulchre,  but  wanted  another  to  remove 
the  stone.  And  there  came  also  an  angel  to  the  carpenter 
about  Mary's  pregnancy,  and  another  angel  to  direct  them 
to  take  the  child  and  flee."  "  At  first  they"  (the  christians) 
"  were  few  in  number,  and  then  they  agreed.  But  being  in- 
creased and  spread  abroad,  they  divide  again  and  again, 
and  every  one  will  have  a  party  of  his  own."* 

Should  any  person,  after  reading  these  passages, 
be  inclined  to  censure  their  introduction  into  our 
pages,  we  would  plead  the  authority  of  Origen  in 
the  third  century,  and  of  Lardner  in  the  eighteenth. 
These  distinguished  christian  authors  transcribed 
into  their  works,  not  only  the  passages  quoted  by 
us  from  Celsus,  but  added  many  others  even  more 
irreverent  and  profane.     We  would  plead  another 


*  Lardner's  Credibility  of  Gospel  History.    Heathen  Testimonies, 


HEATHEN   TESTIMONIES.  49 

authority,  perhaps  still  more  touching  to  the  pious 
heart.  Lardner  affirms  that  the  devout  Doddridge 
observed  to  him,  that  few  learned  men  knew  the 
importance  of  the  remains  of  Celsus,  and  urged 
him  to  give  prominence  to  the  point  when  he  came 
to  treat  of  that  heathen  writer ;  adding  "  that  an 
abridgment  of  the  history  of  Christ  may  be  found 
in  Celsus."  The  sainted  author  of  "  The  Rise  and 
Progress  of  Religion  in  the  Soul,"  compiled  a  co- 
pious digest  of  those  infidel  remains,  which  he  left 
behind  him  at  his  decease,  and  which  Lardner  has 
copied  at  large.  In  that  digest,  Doddridge,  in  ex- 
patiating upon  the  value  of  the  fragments  of  Celsus 
to  the  christian  argument,  thus  exclaims,  "  Who 
can  forbear  adoring  the  depth  of  divine  wisdom  in 
laying  such  a  firm  foundation  for  our  faith  in  the 
Gospel  history,  in  the  writings  of  one  who  was  so 
inveterate  an  enemy  to  it,  and  so  indefatigable  in 
his  attempts  to  overthrow  it  !"* 

It  is  not  to  the  antiquity  of  the  Gospel  alone  that 
Celsus  bears  witness.  He  distinctly  acknowledges 
that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  real  personage.  He  affirms 
that,  having  served  in  Egypt,  "  and  there  learned 
some  charms,"  he  afterwards  "  set  up  himself  for  a 

*  Lardner's  Credibility  of  Gospel  History,  Vol.  IV.  p.  145, 147. 


(f^r^ 


THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

God ;"  that  he  was  followed  by  "  ten  or  eleven  ab- 
jects,  vile  publicans  and  sailors ;"  that  he,  when 
the  government  had  "judged  him  guilty,  and  would 
bring  him  to  punishment,"  "  hid  himself  and  fled 
away,  yet  was  taken,  being  betrayed  by  those 
w^hom  he  called  his  disciples."  And  the  impious 
unbeliever  concedes  that  the  evangelical  doctrines 
w^ere  delivered  by  Him,  v^ho  was,  when  he  wrote, 
"  reckoned  by  the  christians  to  be  the  Son  of  God." 
Celsus  also  expressly  admits,  that  the  Gospel  w^as 
w^ritten  by  the  primitive  apostles.  He  declares ; 
"I  could  say  many  things  concerning  the  affairs  of 
Jesus,  and  those,  too,  true,  different  from  those 
written  by  the  disciples  of  Jesus."  By  "  the  dis- 
ciples of  Jesus"  the  infidel  meant  not  the  professors 
of  his  own  day.  Those  he  sometimes  terms  be- 
lievers, sometimes  christians.  It  was  to  the  earliest 
followers  of  our  Lord  alone  that  he  applied  the  ap- 
pellation of  "  disciples  of  Jesus." 

When  Celsus  w^rote  in  the  year  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five,  the  average  age  of  the  books  compo- 
sing the  Gospel  was  something  over  a  century. 
Some  of  them  had  been  written  a  little  earlier,  and 
some  a  little  later ;  but  the  medium  date  of  their 
publication  w^as  about  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
years  before  the  date   assigned  for  the  w^ork  of 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  51 

Celsus.  This  appears  from  the  writings  of  many 
of  the  christian  fathers ;  and  may  be  gathered  from 
the  Sacred  Record  itself  The  era  of  the  books 
composing  the  Gospel  may  also  be  inferred  from 
the  preserved  fragments  of  the  pagan  philosopher 
in  question.  Celsus  does  not,  indeed,  expressly 
affirm  that,  when  he  wrote,  the  christian  writings 
were  about  an  hundred  years  old.  But  he  gives 
no  intimation  that  the  phenomenon  of  Christianity 
had  sprung  up  in  his  own  lifetime.  He  speaks  of 
it  as  the  faith  of  a  by-gone,  as  well  as  of  the  exist- 
ing generation.  He  says,  "  They  who  conversed 
with  him"  (Jesus)  "  when  alive  and  heard  his  voice 
and  followed  him  as  their  master,  when  they  saw  him 
under  punishment  and  dying,  were  so  far  from 
dying  with  him,  or  for  him,  or  being  induced  to 
despise  sufferings,  that  they  denied  they  were  his 
disciples ;  but  now-a-days  you  die  with  him."  Again 
he  says ;  "  At  first  they,"  (the  faithful)  "  were  few 
in  number ;  and  then  they  agreed.  But  being  in- 
creased and  spread  abroad,  they  divide  again  and 
again,  and  every  one  will  have  a  party  of  his  own." 
The  increase,  scattering  abroad,  and  successive 
divisions  of  the  once  united  little  band,  and  their 
array  in  multifarious  and  independent  parties,  were 
changes  and  revolutions  which  could  scarcely  have 


52        THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 


been  accomplished  within  a  century  after  the  pub- 
lication of  the  evangelical  writings.  And  that  not 
much  over  a  century  had  intervened  between  the 
promulgation  of  the  Gospel  and  the  time  when 
Celsus  wrote,  is  also  inferable  from  the  transcribed 
fragments  of  his  work.  He  admits  that  the  birth 
of  Jesus  was  in  the  reign  of  Herod. 

About  the  year  two  hundred  and  seventy  of  our 
era,  the  heathen  Porphyry  wrote  his  elaborate 
treatise  against  Christianity  in  fifteen  books.  His 
work  is  lost.  He  was  answered  by  Methodius, 
Eusebius  and  Apollinarius.  Their  confutations 
have  also  perished.  All  the  remains  of  the  heathen 
treatise,  to  which  we  can  have  access,  are  to  be 
gleaned  from  surviving  christian  writings  of  early 
date,  into  which  they  were  transcribed  while  the 
work  of  Porphyry  was  in  existence.  These  re- 
mains are  few  in  number ;  but  they  are  decisive  of 
the  real  existence  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the  anti- 
quity of  the  Gospel. 

In  speaking  of  the  memorable  conversion  of 
Origen  to  Christianity,  Porphyry  said : 

"  An  example  of  this  absurd  method  may  be  observed  in 
a  man,  whom  I  saw  when  I  was  very  young,  who  was  then 
in  great  esteem,  and  is  so  still  for  the  writings  which  he 
has  left  behind  him ;  I  mean  Origen,  whose  authority  is 


/ 


HEATHEN   TESTIMONIES.  63 

very  great  with  the  teachers  of  this  doctrine.  For  he,  be- 
ing a  hearer  of  Ammonius,  who  was  so  eminent  in  our  time 
for  skill  in  philosophy,  in  point  of  learning  made  great  im- 
provements by  the  instructions  of  that  master,  but,  with 
regard  to  the  right  way  of  hfe,  took  a  quite  different  course 
with  him.  For  Ammonius,  a  christian  by  birth,  and 
brought  up  by  christian  parents,  as  soon  as  he  was  arrived 
to  maturity  of  age,  and  had  gained  a  taste  for  philosophy, 
returned  to  the  way  of  Hfe  prescribed  by  the  laws.  But 
Origen,  a  Greek,  and  educated  in  the  Greek  sentiment, 
went  over  to  the  barbarian  temerity ;  to  which  he  devoted 
himself,  and  corrupted  himself  and  the  principles  of  hterature 
which  he  had  received  :  as  to  his  life,  living  as  a  christian, 
and  contrary  to  the  laws ;  with  regard  to  his  sentiments 
concerning  things  and  the  Deity,  a  Greek,  and  joining  Greek 
sentiments  with  their  absurd  febles." 

It  seems  that  in  some  copies  of  Matthew,  extant 
in  the  days  of  Porphyry,  the  prophecy  named  in 
the  thirty-fifth  verse  of  the  thirteenth  chapter  of 
that  evangelist  was  incorrectly  ascribed  to  Isaiah. 
The  heathen  philosopher  seized  with  avidity  on  the 
clerical  error,  and  thus  taunted  his  christian  oppo- 
nents ;  "  Your  evangelist  Matthew  was  so  ignorant 
as  to  say;  which  was  written  by  the  prophet 
Isaiah,  I  will  open  my  mouth  in  parables,  I  will 
utter  things  kept  secret  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world."  This  is  palpable  demonstration  that  the 
Gospel  of  Saint  Matthew  was  in  existence  at  the 


54       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

time  Porphyry  wrote.  And  Porphyry  must  also 
have  read  the  Gospel  of  Saint  John,  for  he  thus 
expressed  himself;  "If  the  Son  of  God  be  Word, 
he  must  be  either  outward  Word  or  inward  Word. 
But  he  is  neither  this  nor  that.  Therefore  he  is 
not  Word."  So,  also.  Porphyry  must  have  known 
that,  long  before  his  day,  Jesus  Christ  had  been 
revered  as  a  divine  Being.  For  he  declared,  "  And 
now  people  wonder  that  this  distemper  has  op- 
pressed the  city  so  many  years,  Esculapius  and  the 
other  gods  no  longer  conversing  with  men.  For 
since  Jesus  has  been  honored,  none  have  received 
any  public  benefit  from  the  gods."* 

The  ancient  christian  writers,  whose  works  sur- 
vive, abound  in  details  of  the  substance  of  Por- 
phyry's vituperations  against  Christianity ;  but  we 
know  of  no  other  cases  where  his  very  words  have 
been  transcribed.  And  in  our  extracts  from  pagan 
authors  we  would  adhere  to  their  exact  language. 

The  emperor  Julian  wrote  his  voluminous  work 
against  Christianity  about  the  year  three  hundred 
and  sixty.  His  work  has  been  destroyed  by  the 
lapse  of  time.  Several  christian  fathers  replied  to 
it.     Among  the  most  distinguished  was  Cyril,  who 

*  Lardner's  Credibility  of  Gospel  History :  Heathen  Testimonies. 


/ 


HEATHEN   TESTIMONIES.  55 

wrote  about  sixty  years  after  the  appearance  of  the 
imperial  treatise.  He  has  assured  us  that  he  cited 
Julian  in  his  own  words ;  and  would  not  have  com- 
promitted  his  character  in  the  face  of  his  own  assu- 
rances by  fraudulent  misquotation.  And  even  the 
arch-skeptic  Gibbon,  in  speaking  of  the  work  of 
JuHan,  says;  "Some  fragments  have  been  tran- 
scribed and  preserved  by  his  adversary,  the  vehe- 
ment Cyril  of  Alexandria" — without  daring  to 
insinuate  that  the  illustrious  christian  failed  in  good 
faith  or  accuracy.* 

Extracts  from  Julian  follow : 

"  I  think  it  right  for  me  to  show  to  all  men  the  reasons 
by  which  I  have  been  convinced  that  the  religion  of  the 
Galileans  is  a  human  contrivance  badly  put  together,  having 
in  it  nothing  divine.  But  abusing  the  childish,  irrational 
part  of  the  soul  which  delights  in  fable,  they  have  intro- 
duced a  heap  of  wonderful  works,  to  give  it  the  appearance 
of  truth."  "  That  Moses  says  God  was  the  God  of  Israel 
only  and  of  Judea,  and  that  they  were  his  chosen  people,  I 
shall  demonstrate  presently ;  and  that  not  only  he,  but  the 
prophets  after  him,  and  Jesus,  the  Nazarine,  say  the  same ; 
yea,  and  Paul  also,  who  excelled  all  the  jugglers  and  im- 
postors that  ever  were."  "  That  God  from  the  beginning 
took  care  of  the  Jews  only,  and  that  they  were  his  chosen 
lot,  appears  not  only  from  Moses  and  Jesus,  but  from  Paul 

*  Gibbon,  Vol.  IV.  page  81. 


56  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

also ;  though  this  may  be  justly  thought  strange  in  Paul : 
but  upon  every  occasion,  like  a  polypus  upon  the  rocks,  he 
changeth  his  notions  of  God ;  at  one  time  affirming  that 
the  Jews  only  are  God's  heritage ;  at  another  time,  to  per- 
suade the  Greeks  and  gain  them  over  to  his  side,  saying,  is 
he  God  of  the  Jews  only?  Yes,  of  the  gentiles  also." 
"  Jesus,  whom  you  celebrate,  was  one  of  Caesar's  subjects. 
K  you  dispute  it,  I  will  prove  it  by  and  by.  But  it  may  as 
well  be  done  now.  For  yourselves  allow  that  he  was  en- 
rolled with  his  father  and  mother  in  the  time  of  Cyrenius. 
But  after  he  was  born,  what  good  did  he  do  to  his  rela- 
tions ?  For  they  would  not,  as  it  is  said,  believe  on  him. 
And  yet  that  stiff-necked  and  hard-hearted  people  believed 
Moses.  But  Jesus,  who  rebuked  the  winds,  and  walked  on 
the  seas,  and  cast  out  demons,  and,  as  you  will  have  it, 
made  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  (though  none  of  his  dis- 
ciples presumed  to  say  this  of  him  except  John  only,  nor 
he  clearly  and  distinctly ;  however,  let  it  be  allowed  that 
lie  said  so)  could  not  order  his  designs  so  as  to  save  his 
friends  and  relations."  "  But  Jesus  having  persuaded  a  few 
among  you,  and  those  the  worst  of  men,  has  now  been 
celebrated  about  three  hundred  years ;  having  done  nothing 
in  his  lifetime  worthy  of  remembrance,  unless  any  thinks  it 
a  mighty  matter  to  heal  lame  and  blind  people,  and  exor- 
cise demoniacs,  in  the  villages  of  Bethsaidi  and  Bethany." 
"  But  you  are  so  unhappy  as  not  to  adhere  to  the  things 
delivered  to  you  by  the  apostles ;  but  they  have  been  al- 
tered by  you  for  the  worse,  and  carried  on  to  yet  greater 
impiety.  For  neither  Paul,  nor  Matthew,  nor  Luke,  nor 
Mark  have  dared  to  call  Jesus  God.     But  honest  John,  un- 


I 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  57 

derstanding  that  a  great  multitude  of  men  in  the  cities  of 
Greece  and  Italy  were  seized  with  this  distemper,  and  hear- 
ing likewise,  as  I  suppose,  that  the  tombs  of  Peter  and 
Paul  were  respected  and  frequented,  though  as  yet  pri- 
vately only,  however  having  heard  of  it,  he  then  first  pre- 
sumed to  advance  that  doctrine."  "But  you,  miserable 
people,  at  the  same  time  that  ye  refuse  to  worship  the 
shield  that  fell  down  from  Jupiter  and  is  preserved  by  us, 
which  was  sent  down  to  us  by  the  great  Jupiter,  or  our 
father  Mars,  as  a  certain  pledge  of  the  perpetual  govern- 
ment of  our  city,  you  worship  the  wood  of  the  cross,  and 
make  signs  of  it  upon  your  foreheads,  and  fix  it  upon  your 
doors.  Shall  we  for  this  most  hate  the  understanding,  or 
pity  the  simple  and  ignorant  among"  you  who  are  so  very 
unhappy  as  to  leave  the  immortal  gods,  and  go  over  to  a 
dead  Jew."  "  You  have  killed  not  only  our  people  who 
persisted  in  the  ancient  rehgion,  but  likewise  heretics, 
equally  deceived  with  yourselvei,  but  who  did  not  mourn 
the  dead  man  exactly  in  the  same  manner  as  you  do.  But 
these  are  your  own  inventions ;  for  Jesus  has  nowhere  di- 
rected you  to  do  such  things,  nor  yet  Paul.  The  reason  is, 
that  they  never  expected  you  would  have  arrived  at  such 
power.  They  were  contented  with  deceiving  maid-servants 
and  slaves,  and  by  them  some  men  and  women,  such  as 
Cornelius  and  Sergius.  If  there  were  then  any  other  men 
of  eminence  brought  over  to  you,  I  mean  in  the  times  of 
Tiberius  and  Claudius,  when  these  things  happened,  let  me 
pass  for  a  liar  in  everything  I  say."  "  But  why  do  you  not 
observe  a  pure  diet  as  well  as  the  Jews,  but  eat  all  things 
like  herbs  of  the  field,  believing  Peter,  because  he  said, 
3* 


68  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

Wiat  God  has  cleansed  that  call  not  thou  common. 
What  does  that  mean,  unless  that  God  formerly  declared 
them  to  be  impure,  but  now  has  made  them  clean  ?  For 
Moses  speaking  of  four-footed  beasts,  says,  Whatsoever  di- 
videth  the  hoof  and  cheweth  the  cud  is  clean ;  but  what- 
soever does  not  do  so,  that  is  unclean.  If  then,  since  the 
vision  of  Peter,  the  swine  has  chewed  the  cud,  let  us  believe 
him ;  for  that  would  be  truly  wonderful,  if  since  Peter's 
vision  it  got  that  faculty.  But  if  he  feigned  that  vision,  or, 
to  use  your  phrase,  the  revelation  at  the  tanner's,  why 
should  you  believe  him  in  a  thing  of  that  nature  ?"* 

The  infidel  historian  of  declining  Rome  further 
confirms  the  genuineness  of  the  passages  quoted 
from  the  apostate  emperor,  by  affirming  that 
Lardner  has  "accurately  compiled  all  that  can 
now  be  discovered  of  Julian's  work  against   the 

christians,  "t 

The  confirmation  of  the  Gospel  history  derived 
from  these  extracts,  is  too  palpable  to  need  labored 
elucidation.  The  royal  apostate  confesses  that 
before  he  wrote,  Jesus  had  been  celebrated  about 
three  hundred  years;  that  he  was  enrolled  with 
his  father  and  mother  for  taxation  in  the  time  of 
Cyrenius ;  that  he  rebuked  the  winds  and  walked 
on  the  seas,  and  healed  lame  and  blind  people,  and 

*  Lardner's  Credibility  of  Gospel  History.    Heathen  Testimonies. 
t  Gibbon's  Rome,  VoL  IV.  p.  81.    Note  G. 


HEATHEN    TESTIMONIES.  59 

exorcised  demoniacs  in  the  villages  of  Bethsaidi 
and  Bethany ;  that  Cornelius  and  Sergius  had  be- 
come early  converts  to  the  faith;  that  the  chief 
events  which  the  New  Testament  records  hap- 
pened in  the  times  of  Tiberius  and  Claudius,  and 
were  written  by  the  apostles  of  Jesus.  Julian  ex- 
pressly names,  among  the  composers  of  the  Gos- 
pel, Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  John  and  Paul,  and  re- 
fers to  Peter  as  an  apostolic  chief,  and,  by  impli- 
cation at  least,  as  an  evangelical  writer. 

The  apostate  could  not  have  been  mistaken 
respecting  the  reahty  of  the  events  recorded  in 
the  Gospel.  Baptized  and  educated  in  the  new 
faith,  he  became  at  twenty  a  convert  to  idolatry, 
and,  upon  ascending  the  throne,  changed  from 
christian  to  pagan  the  religion  of  the  state.  The 
startling  change  demanded  public  vindication.  In 
warring  against  the  creed  of  his  youth,  he  deemed 
the  imperial  pen  a  more  efficient  weapon  than  the 
stake,  the  cross,  or  the  lions,  so  often  employed  in 
vain  by  his  infidel  predecessors.  He  had  qualified 
himself  for  the  adventurous  attempt  by  rare  attain- 
ments in  classic  and  in  sacred  knowledge.  Chris- 
tianity was  the  great  phenomenon  of  the  Augustan 
age,  and  he  had  explored  its  history  from  its  birth 
in  the  manger  of  Bethlehem  to  its  assumption  of 


60  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

the  royal  diadem.  With  the  locaUties  and  tradi- 
tions of  Judea  he  had  become  intimately  ac- 
quainted. He  had  studied  the  prophecies  of  our 
Lord  concerning  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and 
attempted  to  falsify  those  prophecies  by  rebuilding 
the  holy  temple.  He  was  familiar  with  all  the  ar- 
guments and  the  calumnies  against  the  religion  of 
the  Crucified,  ever  invented  by  Jewish  malignancy 
or  by  heathen  cunning.  Had  there  been  anything 
of  imposture  or  of  fable  in  the  sacred  narratives, 
it  would  not  have  escaped  the  eagle  eye  of  the 
learned  emperor,  scanning  at  a  glance  the  whole 
horizon  of  the  three  centuries  preceding  his  own 
era.  Nor  did  he  stand  alone :  he  was  aided  by  all 
the  satellites  of  polytheism,  lay  and  ecclesiastical. 
He  was  the  representative  of  the  whole  pagan 
world.  His  confession  to  the  fidelity  of  the  chris- 
tian history,  may  be  regarded  as  the  united, 
the  solemn,  the  official  confession  of  heathen  an- 
tiquity. 

So  much  for  the  pagan  testimonials.  We  now 
proceed  to  the  Jewish.  Josephus,  the  Hebrew 
historian,  was  born  at  Jerusalem  four  years  after 
the  ascension,  and  wrote  his  Jewish  Antiquities  in 
the  year  ninety-three  of  the  christian  era,  about 
twenty-three  years  after  the  destruction  of  the  holy 


JEWISH    TESTIMONIES.  61 

city.     In  that  copious  and  learned  work  are  found 
the  following  passages  : — 

"  Bringing  before  them  James,  the  brother  of  him  who  is 
called  Christ."*  "  At  that  time  lived  Jesus,  a  wise  man, 
if  he  may  be  called  a  man,  for  he  performed  many  wonder- 
ful works.  He  was  a  teacher  of  such  men  as  received  the 
truth  with  pleasure.  He  drew  over  to  him  many  Jews  and 
gentiles.  This  was  the  Christ ;  and  when  Pilate,  at  the 
instigation  of  the  chief  men  among  us,  had  condemned  him 
to  the  cross,  they  who  before  had  conceived  an  affection  for 
him  did  not  cease  to  adhere  to  him ;  for  on  the  third  day 
he  appeared  to  them  alive  again,  the  divine  prophets  having 
foretold  these  and  many  wonderful  things  concerning  him. 
And  the  sect  of  christians  so  called  from  him,  subsists  to 
this  day."t 

If  these  passages  are  genuine  they  are  an  ex- 
press recognition  of  the  truths  of  Christianity  ex- 
torted from  the  Jewish  historian.  But  the  gen- 
uineness of  the  passages  has  been  denied ;  they 
have  been  considered,  even  by  many  christian 
scholars,  as  the  interpolations  of  a  subsequent 
age.  Expunge  the  passages,  and  the  works  of  Jo- 
sephus  contain  not  the  slightest  allusion  to  Jesus 
Christ,  or  to  the  religion  of  which  he  was  -  the 
Founder.     Such  silence,  if  supposed  to  exist,  could 

*  Jewish  Antiq.   lib.  xx.  cap.  ix.  §  1. 
f  Ibid.  lib.  xviii.  cap.  iil  §  3. 


62  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

not  have  been  the  offspring  of  ignorance  or  of  in- 
advertence. 

It  is  impossible  that  the  miracles  of  Christianity, 
Vi^hich  had  filled  the  world  w^ith  astonishment, 
should  not  have  reached  the  ears  and  impressed 
themselves  on  the  memory  of  the  vigilant  Jose- 
phus.  If  the  early  history  of  our  faith  was  so 
familiar  to  the  Roman  Tacitus,  how  could  it  have 
escaped  the  knowledge  or  the  recollection  of  the 
learned  Hebrew  ?  Born  and  brought  up  in  Jeru- 
salem, within  sight  of  the  garden  and  of  the  blood- 
stained hill,  the  nursery  where  he  first  began  to 
lisp  must  have  been  vocal  with  the  tales  of  won- 
der; the  mount  of  Olives,  and  Gethsemane,  and 
Calvary  were  no  doubt  scenes  of  his  boyish  pas- 
times ;  he  may  have  played  on  the  very  spots 
where  Jesus  kneeled,  where  Jesus  died. 

Nor  could  Josephus  have  deemed  the  narrative 
of  the  carpenter's  Son  beneath  the  dignity  of  his- 
tory. Christianity,  be  it  a  romance  or  a  glorious 
reality,  is  the  loftiest  theme  to  which  the  historic 
muse  has  ever  aspired.  He  who  thought  it  worth 
his  while  to  record  the  impostures  of  the  Galilean 
Judas,  and  of  the  Egyptian  false  prophet,  might 
well  have  deigned  to  notice  the  thrilling  story  of 
the  cross,  even  had  he  believed  it  a  cunningly-de- 


JEWISH    TESTIMONIES.  63 

vised  fable.  If  Josephus,  indeed,  omitted  any  allu- 
sion to  the  name  and  miracles  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
omission  is  far  more  wonderful  than  would  have 
been  the  absence  of  the  least  allusion  to  the  rise 
and  progress  of  the  Gospel  in  Gibbon's  Fall  and 
Decline  of  the  Roman  Empire,  or  the  total  ob- 
livion of  the  Reformation  in  Hume's  History  of 
England. 

Here,  then,  are  presented  two  alternatives; 
either  the  Jewish  historian  actually  wrote  the  pas- 
sages we  have  copied  from  his  works,  affirming  the 
messiahship  of  Mary's  Son,  or  else  he  was  silent 
upon  the  subject  by  design.  For  ourselves,  we 
should  deem  the  christian  evidences  strengthened 
by  the  adoption  of  the  latter  alternative.  More 
impressive  than  words  is  often  the  admission  in- 
dicated by  silence.  Words  sometimes  escape 
without  profound  thought;  designed  silence  im- 
plies cautious  deliberation. 

Josephus  was  of  the  order  of  the  priesthood. 
When  he  wrote  his  Jewish  Antiquities,  near  the 
close  of  the  first  century,  his  mental  vision  grasped 
at  one  view  the  original  signs  and  wonders  of  Je- 
sus Christ;  his  crucifixion,  with  the  retiring  sun 
and  the  shuddering  earth ;  the  severed  vail  of  the 
temple ;  the  stupendous  resurrection ;  the  glorious 


64  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

ascension;  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Ghost  at 
pentecost ;  the  gift  of  tongues ;  the  continued 
apostoHc  miracles ;  the  supernatural  triumphs  of 
the  persecuted  faith  in  its  conquering  march  from 
kingdom  to  kingdom,  and  from  continent  to  con- 
tinent. Brooding  over  the  ruins  of  Jerusalem,  he 
read  there  the  tremendous  fulfilment  of  the  pre- 
dictions of  the  Son  of  God.  Bewildered  in  the 
contemplation  of  all  these  original  and  supple- 
mental marvels  congregated  together  like  moun- 
tain piled  upon  mountain,  the  Hebrew  rabbi  may 
have  stood  confounded  and  overwhelmed.  With- 
out magnanimity  to  admit,  or  hardihood  to  deny 
that  his  nation,  headed  by  its  priesthood,  had 
slain  the  Lord  of  glory,  the  historian  of  the  Jews 
might  well  have  remained  speechless.  Speech- 
lessness is  a  confession  of  guiltiness  more  potent 
than  language.  It  was  the  speechlessness  of  the 
guest  without  the  wedding  garment,  that  crowned 
the  evidence  upon  which  he  was  justly  bound 
hand  and  foot  and  cast  into  outer  darkness,  where 
is  weeping  and  wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth. 

After  the  death  of  Josephus,  the  meagre  litera- 
ture of  the  Jews  was  concentrated  in  their  Mishna 
and  Talmuds.  The  Mishna  was  a  collection  of 
all  the  Jewish  traditions  in  six  books,  commencing 


♦  JEWISH    TESTIMONIES.  65 

at  a  remote  period  of  antiquity  and  continued  until 
near  the  close  of  the  second  century,  when  it  was 
published.  To  this  original  text,  commentaries 
called  the  Gemara,  were  appended;  and  the  text 
and  its  commentaries  together  constituted  the  Tal- 
mud. In  process  of  time  two  Talmuds  appeared ; 
the  Jerusalem  Talmud,  published  about  the  year 
three  hundred,  in  one  large  folio,  and  the  Babylo- 
nian Talmud,  published  about  the  year  five  hun- 
dred, and  which,  by  successive  editions,  has  ex- 
panded into  twelve  folios. 

It  is  a  singular  fact,  that  in  the  Mishna  no  dis- 
tinct reference  to  the  christian  religion  can  be 
found.  The  Mishna  was  compiled  by  a  learned 
Israelite,  named  Rabbi  Judah,  then  rector  of  the 
Hebrew  school  at  Tiberias,  in  Galilee.  At  the 
time  of  its  compilation,  the  origin  and  spread  of 
Christianity,  and  all  its  reported  miracles,  had  be- 
come the  wonder  of  the  world.  The  heathen  Cel- 
sus  had  recently  published  against  the  Gospel  his 
voluminous  work.  Yet  upon  our  holy  religion,  the 
Rabbi  Judah  was  silent  as  the  grave.  Absorbed  in 
contemplating  the  evangelical  predictions  of  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  their  swift  fulfilment 
m  the  smouldering  ruins  of  the  beloved  city,  the 
compiler  of  the  Mishna  was  lost  in  amazement ;  his 


66  THE   GOSPEL    ITS    OWN  ADVOCATE. 

tongue  cleaved  to  the  roof  of  his  mouth ;  the  speech- 
lessness of  Josephus  fell  upon  his  successor. 

Nor  is  any  discussion  of  the  truth  or  untruth  of 
Christianity  to  be  found  in  the  Talmuds,  volumi- 
nous as  those  publications  have  become.  Their 
brief  and  vague  allusions  to  the  subject,  v^^hile  vir- 
tually admitting  the  antiquity  of  the  Gospel,  and 
that  its  Founder  and  his  disciples  wrought  signs 
and  wonders,  affect  to  deride  the  prodigies  as  the 
artifices  of  magic  learned  in  Egypt ;  or  as  having 
been  wrought  by  the  right  pronunciation  of  the 
ineffable  name  of  Jehovah,  stolen  from  the  temple. 
Neither  heathen  nor  Jewish  pen  ever  dared  to  inti- 
mate that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  fictitious  personage, 
or  that  the  christian  Scriptures  were  the  forgery  of 
an  age  posterior  to  their  assumed  date. 

We  are  not  ignorant  that  there  is  a  chain  of 
christian  authors,  commencing  at  the  apostolic  era, 
and  stretching  downward  until  long  after  Christi- 
anity had  permanently  assumed  the  imperial  purple, 
whose  surviving  works  attest  with  overpowering 
force  the  genuineness  and  antiquity  of  the  books 
composing  the  Gospel.  These  holy  fathers,  whose 
list  is  headed  by  the  names  of  Barnabus,  Clement 
and  Hermas,  the  companions  of  the  blessed  Paul, 
were  placed  like  watchmen  along  the  track  of  de- 


~         .  TESTIMONIES    OF    THE    FATHERS.  67 

scending  centuries,  with  an  average  interval  of  only 
about  ten  years  between  them,  ever  intent  upon  the 
swelling  stream  of  salvation,  and  exultingly  point- 
ing upwards  to  its  divine  fountain-head.  An 
abridgment  of  the  testimony  of  this  vast  host  of 
christian  witnesses,  fills  two  large  quarto  volumes 
in  the  great  work  upon  the  historical  proofs  of 
Christianity,  entitled,  "  The  Credibility  of  the  Gos- 
pel History,"  to  which  we  have  already  referred. 
Further  compression  would  vitally  impair  the 
strength  of  the  testimony.  Instead  of  attempting 
its  faint  sketch  and  virtual  mutilation  within  the 
limits  of  our  brief  essay,  devoted  chiefly  to  the  in- 
ternal evidences  of  the  Gospel,  we  refer  the  reader 
to  the  original  abridgment  compiled  by  the  patient 
and  masterly  hand  of  the  erudite  Lardner. 


CHAPTER  III. 

DIVINE   REVELATION   WAS   COEVAL   WITH   THE    CREATION   OF   MAN. 

Any  supernatural  communicatioa  from  God  a  divine  revelation — 
No  matter  what  its  form  or  subject — Human  race  not  from  ever- 
lasting— Man  created  without  instinct  of  brutes,  or  innate  ideas 
to  guide  him — Our  primeval  ancestors  at  their  creation  were  but 
grown-up  infants — Utterly  inexperienced,  they  would  have  per- 
ished from  hunger,  thirst,  cold,  or  casualties,  without  supernatural 
instruction — Such  instruction  a  divine  revelation — General  ex- 
pectation of  heathen  world  before  birth  of  Christ  that  moral  light 
was  about  to  dawn. 

The  primary  objection  of  skeptical  philosophy 
against  the  Gospel's  claim  to  inspiration  consists  in 
the  broad  proposition,  that  God  has  never  conde- 
scended to  make  a  preternatural  revelation  of  him- 
self to  the  children  of  men.  Infidelity  confines  not 
its  attacks  to  the  miraculous  outworks  of  christian 
faith ;  it  aims  its  shafts  at  the  heaven-constructed 
citadel  within.  It  repudiates  miracles  as  opposed 
to  the  common  laws  of  nature ;  it  discards  inspira- 
tion as  opposed  to  those  higher  laws  by  which  the 
Almighty  binds  his  ow^n  infinite  Majesty. 

We  must  bear  carefully  in  mind,  that  any  super- 
natural communication  from  God  to  man  is  a  divine 


ANTiaUITY    OP   REVELATION.  .09 

revelation.  Neither  its  form  or  its  subject  is  ma- 
terial to  its  constitution.  It  is  a  divine  revelation, 
whatever  may  be  its  form  or  its  subject,  if  it  has 
come  down  preternaturally  from  the  Deity.  In  our 
present  chapter,  we  shall  attempt  to  prove  that,  be- 
fore the  revelation  to  Moses,  God  had  imparted 
supernatural  communications  to  the  sons  of  human- 
ity. Should  the  attempt  be  successful,  it  will  ef- 
fectually demolish  the  major  proposition  in  the 
primary  syllogism  of  unbelief.  Our  purposed  dem- 
onstration will  rest,  not  on  w^hat  infidelity  de- 
nounces as  the  deceptive  evidence  of  the  Bible,  but 
on  those  natural  and  fixed  principles  which  entered 
into  the  original  structure  of  man.  Should  our 
effort  prevail,  it  will  reach  the  fountain-head, 
whence  the  poisonous  streams  of  skepticism  have 
been  flowing  for  so  long  a  succession  of  centuries. 

That  the  generations  of  our  race  have  not  been 
of  eternal  continuance,  is,  perhaps,  a  self-evident 
truism.  The  supposition  of  a  chain  of  infinite 
length,  composed  of  finite  links,  without  any  start- 
ing-point to  hang  on,  is  an  absurdity  which  sinks 
under  its  own  downward  gravitation.  Nor  was 
man's  habitation  from  everlasting.  This  poor  earth 
of  ours,  waxing  old  even  in  its  youth,  could  ill  have 
sustained  the  wear  and  convulsions  of  never-be- 


70  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

ginning  ages.  If  the  successive  generations  of  men 
were  from  everlasting,  how  must  the  whole  race 
have  slept  "  to  dumb  forgetfulness  a  prey/'  during 
the  countless  centuries  of  the  early  Past !  How 
happens  it  that  the  flight  of  a  by-gone  eternity  has 
reared  no  trophy  to  man's  ethereal  mind,  save 
within  the  comparatively  little  speck  of  the  last  few 
thousand  years  ? 

The  conclusion  is  inevitable,  that  man  is  not  a 
self-existent  being.  He  was  brought  into  existence 
within  the  limits  of  time.  The  first  progenitors  of 
our  race  must  have  been  constituted  male  and  fe- 
male ;  and  we  will  suppose  that  they  were  created 
in  the  full  maturity  of  their  faculties,  corporeal  and 
intellectual.  With  the  exact  period  of  their  forma- 
tion, and  the  particular  country  in  which  they  were 
located,  our  argument  has  no  immediate  concern. 
Our  present  object  is  to  prove  that,  whenever 
formed  and  wherever  placed,  they  must,  in  their 
state  of  original  inexperience,  have  speedily  and 
miserably  perished,  carrying  with  them  into  ob- 
livion the  hopes  of  their  promised  seed,  unless  they 
had  been  specially  and  preter naturally  instructed 
from  heaven.  This  special  and  preternatural  in- 
struction had  all  the  attributes  of  a  divine  revela- 
tion. 


ANTiaUITY    OF    REVELATION.  71 

Our  earliest  ancestors  were  doubtless  cast  in  the 
common  mould  of  humanity,  untainted,  indeed,  by 
original  sin.  In  physical  powers,  corporeal  and 
mental,  they  differed  not  from  their  descendants. 
The  great  Locke  affirms  that  man  comes  into  ex- 
istence without  innate  ideas,  and  that  the  mind  is 
originally  a  sheet  of  white  paper  where  experience, 
at  her  leisure,  is  to  write  her  instructive  lessons. 
His  theory  has  been  the  subject  of  much  criticism. 
But,  perhaps,  the  difference  between  him  and  his 
critics  consists  in  words  rather  than  in  substance. 
They  contend  that,  as  the  acorn  encloses  in  its 
small  circumference  the  oak  that  may  reign  for 
centuries  the  monarch  of  the  forest,  so  the  mind, 
at  its  birth,  contains  within  itself  all  the  intellec- 
tual elements  of  the  future  man,  waiting  only  oc- 
casions for  their  development.  But  they  will  not 
maintain  that  these  elements  can  be  developed 
without  experience,  any  more  than  they  would 
maintain  that  the  acorn  can  be  expanded  into  the 
oak  without  soil,  moisture  and  heat.  The  theory 
of  Locke  and  that  of  his  learned  opponents  lead, 
therefore,  to  the  same  practical  result.  Without 
the  teachings  and  culture  of  experience,  or  some 
miraculous  instruction  from  above,  the  newly  cre- 
ated mind  must  of  necessity  remain,   on  either 


72        THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

theory,  inert  and  helpless  from  its  nativity  to  its 
dissolution.  It  is  equally  certain  that  man  has  not 
the  instinct  of  the  brute.  God  bestows  upon  his 
creatures  only  what  their  natures  need.  The  en- 
dowments of  his  creating  goodness,  like  the  manna 
of  the  desert,  are  distributed  with  no  prodigal  pro- 
fusion. To  man  is  not  imparted  the  instinct  of 
inferior  animals,  because  man  needs  it  not. 

In  the  brute  creation  instinct  is  the  substitute 
for  reason.  Instinct  has  made  the  beaver  a  pro- 
ficient in  architecture,  and  earned  for  the  elephant 
the  appellation  of  "half  reasoning."  God  made 
man  in  his  own  image,  and  after  his  own  likeness ; 
he  breathed  into  him  the  breath  of  life  from  the 
fountain  of  his  own  vitality.  With  the  intellectual 
image  of  the  Almighty  within  him,  the  lord  of  the 
terrestrial  creation  needs  not  the  instinct  of  his 
subject  animals.  To  man  it  would  be  superfluous ; 
doubtless  onerous.  God  bestows  nothing  in  vain. 
The  wastefulness  of  human  prodigality  can  find 
no  countenance  in  the  example  of  the  Highest. 
Reason  is  man's  all-sufficient  boon ;  slight  are  the 
sprinklings  of  instinct  perceptible  in  the  human 
structure. 

Our  primitive  ancestors  constituted,  as  their  de- 
scendants are  constituted,  without  the  instinct  of 


II    ' 

ANTIQUITY    OF    REVELATION.  73 

the  brute  creation  or  innate  ideas  of  competency 
to  guide  them,  were,  when  first  brought  into  exist- 
ence, but  grown-up  infants.  Their  maturity  of 
body  and  of  mind  was  bootless  without  the  teach- 
ings derived  from  experience.  A  person  kept  in 
a  soHtary  prison  from  birth  to  manhood,  without 
ever  beholding  the  light  of  the  blessed  sun,  or  see- 
ing the  "  human  face  divine,"  or  hearing  the  sound 
of  human  voice,  would,  if  suddenly  emancipated 
from  confinement  and  thrown  upon  his  own  un- 
disciplined resources,  find  himself  intellectually 
helpless  as  the  nQw-born  babe.  His  physical 
powers  would  little  avail  him ;  and,  unless  some 
pitying  eye  should  find  him  and  some  helping  hand 
be  stretched  forth  for  his  relief,  his  dismayed  and 
despairing  spirit  would  speedily  yearn  after  the 
water,  the  bread  and  the  shelter  of  his  dungeon 
home. 

Our  first  parents,  on  the  day  of  their  creation, 
were  even  more  infantine  in  knowledge  than  the 
emancipated  prisoner  to  whom  we  have  just  al- 
luded. The  Bible  affirms  that  God  himself  was 
their  gracious  Schoolmaster.  Philosophy,  if  she 
rejects  the  scriptural  account,  is  bound  to  suggest 
some   other   means   that   could   have   saved  from 

swift  destruction  the  inexperienced  pair,  cast  un- 
4 


74  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

awares  and  without  terrestrial  guide  upon  a  scene 
SO  new  and  strange.  Unbelief,  in  all  its  hardihood, 
is  challenged  to  intimate  any  expedient  by  which 
they  could,  without  light  from  above,  have  sur- 
vived the  first  year  of  their  miserable  being.  We 
invite  the  eye  of  sympathy  to  explore,  painful  as 
may  be  the  task,  the  fearful  evils  which,  without  a 
heavenly  teacher,  must  have  environed  those  lone 
tenants  of  a  wilderness  world. 

The  sun  that  first  beheld  the  new-made  ances- 
tors of  human  kind,  would  soon  go  down.  And 
what,  save  some  cheering  intimation  from  heaven, 
could  have  saved  from  frenzy  the  derelict  pair 
amidst  the  maddening  horrors  of  that  first  night  ? 
Hunger  would  not  long  delay  its  imperative  calls. 
And  how  were  the  forsaken  strangers  to  be  res- 
cued from  the  jaws  of  famine?  The  oracle  of 
reason,  mute  in  amazement,  could  yield  no  re- 
sponse. Experience  is  the  only  efficient  purveyor 
for  food.  Feeble  instinct  might  have  conveyed  to 
the  mouth  whatever  substance  the  hand  could 
grasp;  but  neither  the  instinct  of  humanity,  nor 
reason  without  practice,  could  distinguish  the  nu- 
tritious from  the  poisonous,  or  discerningly  choose 
between  the  wholesome  fruits  of  the  tree  and  the 
wild  grass  of  the  field.     Our  primeval  ancestors, 


ANTiaUITY    OF    REVELATION.  75 

created  to  rule  this  lower  world,  must,  without 
divine  guidance,  have  perished  from  very  hunger, 
whilst  "  the  cattle  upon  a  thousand  hills"  rioted  in 
plenty.  Thirst  would  interpose  its  fierce  claims. 
But  what  kind  prompting,  save  from  above,  could 
conduct  to  the  cool  spring  or  the  pure  stream  ? 

Nature  might  have  invited  the  outcasts  to  roam 
through  her  woods.  But  who  was  to  forewarn 
against  the  deadly  precipice,  or  the  raging  flood  ? 
The  naked  wanderers  would  have  exquisitely  felt 
the  alternations  of  heat  and  of  cold.  Yet  how  were 
they  to  learn  the  cool  of  the  shade,  or  the  warmth 
of  raiment  ?  The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds 
of  the  air  nests,  indicated  by  animal  instincts.  But 
for  shelter  against  the  pitiless  storm  and  the  wintry 
blasts,  the  inexperienced  pair  had  no  skill  to  con- 
struct the  cabin  or  explore  the  cavern.  Fire  is 
needful  for  the  preservation  of  life.  But  without 
instruction  from  heaven,  how  could  the  first  fire 
have  been  lighted  ?  The  breath  of  man  could  no 
more  have  enkindled  the  visible,  than  the  vital 
spark.  The  production  of  flame  by  collision  was  a 
fortuitous  discovery,  requiring  experience  to  ma- 
ture. Yet  our  pristine  ancestors  survived;  and 
skepticism,  to  be  consistent  with  itself,  must  needs 
attribute  their  escape  from  impendent  perils — from 


76  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

death  by  fright  or  famine — by  thirst  or  flood — by 
precipice  or  poison — by  burning  heat  or  freezing 
cold — not  to  the  God  who  made  them,  but  to  the 
bUnd  god  of  the  atheist.  In  the  theory  of  unbeUef, 
chance  was  their  sole  preserver. 

The  Bible  indicates  that  speech  was  communi- 
cated to  our  first  parents  by  the  Almighty.  Philos- 
ophy, if  she  rejects  the  Mosaic  account,  is  bound 
to  substitute  a  sounder  exposition  of  the  origin  of 
language.  The  use  of  articulate  sounds  for  the 
communication  of  thoughts  is  not  taught  by  nature. 
The  infant  cries  instinctively ;  he  instinctively  ap- 
plies his  mouth  to  the  maternal  fountain ;  but  he 
does  not  instinctively  talk.  To  suppose  that  primi- 
tive and  unaided  man  was  the  author  of  language, 
would  imply  a  marvel  stranger  than  that  of  the 
scriptural  narrative.  Why  should  it  be  thought 
incredible  that,  at  the  beginning,  God  distinguished 
the  lord  of  this  lower  world  from  his  subject  brutes 
by  miraculously  teaching  him  the  science  of 
speech  ? 

It  is  true  that  persons  of  different  languages,  cast 
upon  a  desert  island,  would  learn  to  intercommu- 
nicate by  signs,  and  ultimately,  perhaps,  by  a  rude 
dialect  of  their  own  formation.  But  they  were 
conscious,  when  they  met,  that  man  had  become  a 


ANTiaUITY    OF    REVELATION.  77 

speaking  animal;  each  knew  that  the  others,  as 
well  as  himself,  were  familiar  with  the  use  of  articu- 
late sounds;  they  had  but  to  apply  a  discovery, 
ancient  and  heaven-taught,  to  the  exigency  of  their 
own  case.  The  formation  of  a  dialect,  compounded 
from  their  mother  tongues,  would  bear  no  affinity  to 
the  first  creation  of  language.  If  the  survivors  of 
a  fleet,  stranded  on  some  solitary  coast,  should 
from  the  wrecks  around  them,  with  the  tools  of 
marine  architecture  at  hand,  construct  and  rig  out 
some  rude  craft  for  their  escape,  the  achievement 
would  sustain  no  comparison  with  the  original  in- 
vention of  the  sublime  science  of  ship-building. 
And  yet  the  science  of  ship-building  bears  to  the 
primeval  structure  of  language,  a  less  proportion 
than  the  diminutive  hillock  bears  to  the  majestic 
mountain. 

The  foregoing  premises  demonstrate  that  God 
must  have  imparted  supernatural  communications  to 
man  in  the  very  infancy  of  his  existence.  Had  the 
communications  related  solely  to  the  concerns  of 
time,  they  would  still  have  been  divine  revelations. 
It  is  not  a  necessary  element  of  divine  revelation, 
that  it  should  pertain  to  the  awful  realities  of  eter- 
nity. Religion  has  been  the  usual,  but  not  the 
exclusive  subject  of  inspirations  from  heaven.     The 


78  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

dream  of  the  hardened  Pharaoh  was  a  divine  reve- 
lation of  the  approaching  famine.  And  yet  famine 
is  but  a  temporal  dispensation.  The  Jewish  code 
of  civil  jurisprudence  was  a  divine  revelation, 
equally  with  the  ten  commandments  proclaimed 
from  the  quaking  mount.  The  handwriting  on  the 
wall  of  the  Chaldean  palace  was  a  divine  revelation, 
though  predicting  only  the  tyrant's  secular  doom, 
and  the  extinction  of  the  Babylonian  dynasty. 

Nor  was  the  divinity  of  the  communications  to 
our  first  parents  affected  by  the  manner  in  which 
they  may  have  been  imparted.  The  heavenly 
messages  were  divine  revelations,  whether  con- 
veyed by  the  audible  voice  which  afterwards 
thundered  from  Sinai,  or  by  angel  whispers,  or  in 
dreams  and  visions  of  the  night.  Peradventure 
God  wrote  his  instructions  to  the  infant  adults  with 
his  own  hand  on  the  sheets  of  their  inexperienced 
minds.  Still  the  preternatural  handwriting  was  a 
divine  revelation.  Perhaps  the  intellectual  vacuum 
was  supplied  by  a  miraculous  infusion  of  instinct. 
Still  the  instinctive  lore,  foreign  to  the  limits  of 
humanity,  was  a  divine  revelation. 

The  footsteps  of  divine  revelation  to  pristine  man 
mark  every  line  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  book  of 
nature.     The  pure  and  clear  eye  of  candor  cannot 


ANTiaUITY   OF    REVELATION.  79 

fail  to  perceive  them  there.  And  observe  well  the 
accordance  between  that  book  and  the  book  of 
avowed  Inspiration.  The  first  chapters  of  the 
Sacred  Volume  proclaim  the  divine  revelations,  for 
temporal  objects,  made  to  our  primeval  ancestors 
in  the  very  morn  of  their  being ;  the  proclamation 
had  been  anticipated  in  nature's  still  earlier  volume. 
The  accordance  between  the  Book  of  Scripture 
and  the  book  of  nature,  establishes  the  truth  of 
both.  The  preternatural  communications  recorded 
in  nature's  register,  are  the  first  link  in  that  stu- 
pendous chain  of  revelations  which  terminated  not 
until  the  close  of  the  Apocalypse.  Proof  that  the 
first  link  of  the  chain  was  wrought  by  heaven,  is 
"  confirmation  strong"  that  the  workmanship  of  its 
other  links  is  also  divine. 

The  sublunary  wants  of  the  world's  master,  so 
miraculously  supplied,  bore  no  greater  proportion 
to  what  sin  made  his  spiritual  wants,  than  time 
bears  to  eternity.  When  God  looked  down  from 
heaven  on  the  early  descendants  of  the  original 
pair,  he  beheld  them  immerged  in  ignorance,  crime 
and  idolatry.  Then  came  a  deluge,  of  which  earth 
will  carry  to  her  grave  indelible  marks.  But  all 
the  waters  of  the  flood  could  not  wash  from  our 
sphere  the  pollutions  of  sin.     In  due  time  the  ex- 


80  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

periment  of  civilization  was  tried.  Science  eleva- 
ted the  mind,  but  purified  not  the  heart.  Apostate 
man  could  not  "  by  searching  find  out  God."  The 
fallen  race  were  conscious,  indeed,  of  hostility  to 
their  Creator;  but,  when  asked  to  indicate  the 
way  of  reconciliation,  reason's  boasted  oracle  was 
speechless.  Man  felt  the  divinity  stirring  within 
him ;  but  whether  his  ethereal  spirit  was  to  perish 
with  its  sister  clay,  or  survive  "  the  wreck  of  mat- 
ter and  the  crush  of  worlds,"  was  a  problem  insolv- 
able  by  humanity.  No  exertion  of  mortal  intellect 
could  bring  "  life  and  immortality  to  light." 

For  thousands  of  years  the  aching  and  bewil- 
dered soul  was  lifting  up  its  piercing  and  frantic 
cries  to  heaven  for  illumination  and  help.  The 
whole  creation  groaned  and  travailed  in  pain  to- 
gether.* Yet  did  the  fallen  creature,  in  his  lowest 
estate,  bear  marks,  "  like  archangel  ruined,"  of  his 
pristine  grandeur.  That  Jehovah  should  have  pro- 
vided by  special  revelation  for  his  original  physical 
wants,  and  yet  make  no  provision  for  his  subsequent 
spiritual  necessities,  intense  as  they  were,  is  a  sup- 
position opposed  to  that  reason  which  infidelity 
idolatrously  worships  as  a  goddess,  and  derogatory, 

*  Romans  viiL  22. 


ANTiaUITY    OF    REVELATION.  81 

we  speak  it  with  reverence,  to  the  infinite  goodness 
of  Him  who  has  arrayed  the  HHes  of  the  field,  and 
provided  food  for  the  young  ravens.  The  primeval 
revelation  from  heaven  registered  in  the  book  of 
nature,  was  the  first  act  of  a  series ;  it  was  the  sure 
precursor  of  more  glorious  revelations  to  come. 
The  grand  drama  of  God,  exhibited  to  an  astonished 
universe,  would  lose  its  completeness  by  subtracting, 
as  uninspired,  a  single  line  from  the  Old  Testament 
or  the  New.  Man's  miraculous  preservation  in  his 
pristine  state  was  the  visible  commencement  of  the 
divine  drama ;  its  sublime  consummation  was  de- 
veloped by  the  miracle  of  his  redemption. 

Nor  must  the  general  belief  of  the  pagan  world 
before  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  moral  light 
was  about  to  dawn  from  above,  be  passed  over  in 
silence.  Socrates,  sometimes  called  the  almost 
christian,  deplored  in  his  dying  hour  his  want  of 
spiritual  vision,  and  encouraged  Plato  and  his  other 
weeping  disciples  to  expect  in  patience  a  revelation 
from  heaven.  The  heathen  Suetonius  declares ;  "  It 
was  an  ancient  and  constant  opinion,  and  founded 
upon  the  knowledge  of  some  divine  decree,  that  a 
person  or  persons  would  appear  in  Judea,  who 
should  obtain  the  government  of  the  world."  Taci- 
tus observes ;  "  It  was  the  persuasion  of  most  an- 
4* 


82  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

cient  persons,  that  the  olden  books  of  the  priests 
contained  passages  which  impHed  that  the  East 
would  become  powerful,  and  that  there  would  arise 
in  Judea  those  w^ho  should  achieve  universal  em- 
pire." It  is  manifest  that  Virgil,  in  his  fourth 
eclogue,  had  some  glimpses  of  "  the  day's  spring 
from  on  high."  These  cherished  hopes  might  have 
been  suggested  by  the  inspired  oracles  of  the  Jews ; 
but  the  suggestions  found  a  ready  and  deep  re- 
sponse from  the  smothered  divinity  breathed  by  the 
Almighty  into  the  human  breast. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   THEOLOGY   OF   THE   GOSPEL. 

"Works  of  God  and  of  man  distinguishable  by  inspection — Whether 
God  or  man  made  Gospel  is  determinable  by  its  internal  evi- 
dence— Moral  attributes  of  God  not  discoverable  by  reason — Yet 
reason  perceives  divine  truthfulness  of  their  delineation  in  Gos- 
pel— Style  of  Bible — Atonement  beyond  mortal  contrivance — 
Yet  when  revealed,  reason  must  recognize  it  the  work  of  God — 
The  Trinity — A  mystery  too  profound  and  startling  for  impostors 
to  have  incorporated  into  work  of  fiction. 

There  is  a  contrast  between  the  works  of  God 
and  the  works  of  man,  which  plainly  distinguishes 
the  divine  from  the  human.  Raise  your  medita- 
tion to  the  system  above  us,  with  its  central  sun, 
and  wheeling  orbs.  How  symmetrical!  How 
simple !  How  majestic !  How  changeless !  How 
adapted  in  all  its  variegated  parts  to  the  perfection 
of  its  stupendous  whole!  Then  sink  your  con- 
templation to  the  proudest  work  of  man.  How 
diminutive !  How  imperfect !  How  indicative  of 
the  little  shifts  of  artifice !  How  prone  to  derange- 
ment, to  the  vicissitudes  of  change,  and  to  the  de- 
crepitude of  age!  Each  aspect  of  the  visible 
heavens  bears  on  its  face  the  impress  of  divinity. 


84        THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

Nor  are  the  sublunary  works  of  God  less  distin- 
guishable from  the  works  of  his  creature.  It  re- 
quires no  elaborate  study  to  discover  that  the 
house  is  the  production  of  mortal  hands,  and  that 
the  Architect  of  the  mountains  is  He  who  hath 
weighed  them  "in  scales,  and  the  hills  in  a  bal- 
ance." The  bridge  that  spans  the  stream  is  pal- 
pably of  human  structure ;  the  flowing  stream 
below  proclaims  the  workmanship  of  Him  who 
makes  "  rivers  in  the  desert."  Earth's  petty  mas- 
ter claims  as  his  own  the  curiously- wrought  watch ; 
but  the  observer  perceives  at  a  glance  that  it  is  the 
pencil  of  the  Almighty  which  paints  the  lilies  of 
the  field.  God  imitates  not  the  works  of  mortals ; 
nor  can  the  barrier  between  the  human  and  the 
divine  be  passed  by  the  brother  of  the  worm.  To 
the  authorship  of  the  meanest  production  of  om- 
nipotent power  mortality  dare  not  lay  claim ;  nor 
will  the  loftiest  production  of  manhood  rashly  con- 
tend for  heavenly  origin. 

What  God  has  made  and  what  man  has  made,  is 
a  question  of  great  simplicity  and  easy  solution ;  it 
requires  not  the  invocation  of  extraneous  proofs ; 
it  is  tested  by  its  internal  evidence.  To  this  rule, 
boundless  as  the  realms  of  nature  and  of  art,  can 
it  be  that  the  Gospel  is  a  lonely  exception  ?    Is  it 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  85 

the  only  thing  that  does  not  demonstrate  its  own 
paternity  ?  Of  all  the  works  of  God  and  of  man,  is 
it  the  isolated  production  whose  authorship  cannot 
be  ascertained  by  inspection  ?  We  deny  that  the 
Gospel  presents  such  a  strange  anomaly  in  the  vis- 
ible universe.  Its  diligent,  honest  and  candid  ex- 
plorer can  no  more  doubt  its  divine  origin  than  the 
astronomer  can  doubt  that  the  worlds  are  the  crea- 
tions of  Jehovah. 

In  addressing  his  heavenly  Father  the  psalmist 
piously  exclaimed,  "  Thou  hast  magnified  thy  word 
above  all  thy  name."*  If  this  exclamation  be  true, 
the  divine  hand  must  be  deeply  engraved  upon  the 
holy  pages.  God  has  magnified  his  Word  above 
his  other  works  by  specially  impressing  upon  it  the 
image  of  himself.  Historic  corroborations  are  sat- 
isfactory and  useful  to  the  investigation  of  the 
christian  evidences.  Yet  they  form  but  the  out- 
works of  Sacred  Truth.  The  glorious  Citadel  of 
Salvation  rests  its  claim  to  divinity  chiefly  on  the 
symmetry,  the  beauty,  the  purity,  the  strength,  the 
unearthly  majesty  of  its  own  proportions.  The 
Gospel  is  itself  its  best  Advocate. 

In   canvassing  the   internal  evidences    of    the 

*  Psalm  cxiQcviii.  2. 


86  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

christian  religion,  the  first  theme  that  presents  it- 
self is  its  sublime  theology.  The  theology  of  the 
Gospel  comprises  the  being  and  attributes  of  God, 
the  redemption  of  the  world  by  the  vicarious  suf- 
ferings of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  personality  and 
agencies  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  Bible  represents  its  God  as  a  Being  eter- 
nally self-existent,  uniting  in  himself  almightiness, 
omnipresence,  omniscience,  immutability,  inflexible 
truth,  infinite  holiness,  infinite  justice,  and  infinite 
love.  This  assemblage  of  perfections  is  unques- 
tionably the  most  stupendous  exhibition  ever  pre- 
sented to  human  view.  Yet  impartial  reason  must 
perceive  and  admit  the  fidelity  of  the  sublime  pic- 
ture. Even  infidelity  is  obliged  to  confess  that  the 
Jehovah  of  the  Bible  is  just  such  a  Deity  as  the 
universe  required  for  its  creation,  preservation  and 
government.  Unbelief,  unless  sunk  to  the  grade 
of  atheism,  will  not  venture  to  deny  that  the  Scrip- 
tures have  faithfully  delineated  the  true  and  only 
God  of  nature.  In  the  august  representation  there 
is  nothing  to  subtract,  nothing  to  add,  nothing  to 
amend. 

The  scriptural  delineation  of  God  was  not  drawn 
by  mortal  pencil.  Reason  may  recognize  truths 
when  presented  to  her  contemplation,  which  she 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  87 

would  never  have  originated  by  her  own  unaided 
efforts.  A  ploughman  may  credit  the  marvels  of 
astronomy,  which  it  required  the  genius  of  a  New- 
ton to  bring  to  light.  It  would  be  foreign  to  our 
purpose  to  inquire  whether,  if  man  had  remained 
in  his  primitive  state  of  holiness,  he  would  of  him- 
self have  discovered  the  perfections  of  his  Creator 
in  their  glorious  amplitude.  Man  did  not  remain 
in  his  primitive  state  of  holiness.  He  fell :  and  sin 
miserably  dimmed  his  spiritual  vision.  By  the 
apostasy  his  heart  became  darkened.  There  is  a 
moral,  as  well  as  a  physical  imbecility  of  the  intel- 
lect. Almost  six  thousand  years  have  elapsed 
since  the  creation,  and  fallen  man  has  never  soared 
to  a  just  conception  of  the  true  God,  except  where 
inspiration  has  shed  its  beams.  To  show  the  ca- 
pacity of  reason  for  advancement  in  the  science  of 
theism,  infidelity  has  vauntingly  pointed  to  the 
early  Bramins  of  India,  to  the  Confucius  of  China, 
to  the  Zoroaster  of  Persia,  and  to  the  Socrates  and 
Plato  of  classic  Greece.  But  these  sages  made 
little  progress  in  the  science  of  theological  truth ; 
and  what  little  they  learned  was  chiefly  derived 
from  the  divine  fountain  opened  by  early  rev- 
elation. 
Reason  may,  by  its  own  efforts,  trace  effects  to 


88  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

their  cause,  and  thus  infer  the  existence  of  Him 
who  framed  the  worlds.  It  may  furthermore  con- 
clude that  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  uni- 
verse must  be  almighty  and  omniscient.  But 
should  fallen  man,  without  the  lamp  of  Scripture, 
attempt  to  explore  what  are  termed  the  moral  at- 
tributes of  the  Deity,  he  must  wander  and  be  lost 
in  utter  darkness.  What,  for  instance,  could  a 
sinful  being  know  of  the  holiness  of  God  ?  When 
seen  in  the  scriptural  mirror,  it  constitutes  one  of 
the  chief  of  Jehovah's  attributes.  Next  to  redeem- 
ing love,  it  is  perhaps  the  most  stirring  theme  in 
the  anthem  of  the  skies ;  and  the  uplifted  eye  of 
terrestrial  devotion  ever  gazes  with  wonder  and 
delight  on  the  holiness  of  Him  who  "  sitteth  upon 
the  throne."  But  of  "  the  beauty  of  holiness,"  car- 
nal wisdom  could  learn  nothing  from  communing 
with  herself  Without  the  vocabulary  of  the  Bible, 
she  must  have  remained  ignorant  even  of  the 
meaning  of  the  terms.  Yet,  when  the  volume  of 
Inspiration  reiterates  the  hallelujah  of  heaven, 
"  Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts,"  reason 
must  needs  yield  her  concurring,  though  perhaps 
reluctant  response.  With  the  Bible  before  her, 
she  must  perforce  admit  that  holiness  is  essential 
to  happiness ;  that  without  holiness,  heaven  would 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  89 

be  heaven  no  more ;  that  a  God  divested  of  infinite 
hoHness  would  cease  to  be  a  God  of  infinite  beati- 
tude ;  that  an  unholy  sovereign  of  the  universe 
would  fill  created  intelligences  with  consternation 
and  despair. 

Infinite  justice  and  infinite  love  are  also  perfec- 
tions of  Him  who  "  inhabiteth  eternity."  And 
these  are  attributes  with  which  the  destiny  of  mor- 
tals is  more  especially  connected.  Yet  fallen  man 
could  not  have  discovered  them  by  the  light  of  na- 
ture. Aside  from  the  Bible,  reason  knows  nothing 
of  the  attributes  of  God,  except  from  their  display  in 
this  lower  world.  She  can  argue  of  things  in- 
visible only  from  things  that  are  seen.  She  holds 
no  converse  with  the  inhabitants  of  other  spheres. 
Into  the  annals  of  eternity  she  cannot  peer,  without 
the  aid  of  the  Gospel.  Limiting  her  views  to  this 
poor  world,  reason  must  hesitate  in  her  conclusion, 
that  its  Governor  is  a  being  of  never-sleeping  jus- 
tice. In  his  distribution  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments, he  takes  not  counsel  of  her.  With  the 
thunderbolt  in  his  right  hand,  he  has  stood  by  in 
seeming  indifference,  while  might  has  been  tramp- 
ling on  right  ever  since  the  days  of  Eden.  Though 
not  a  sparrow  falleth  to  the  ground  without  his 
notice,  the  great  historic  tragedy  of  injustice,  crime, 


90        THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

and  woe  has  been  recklessly  enacted  in  the  face 
of  heaven,  without  let  or  hindrance,  for  near  six 
thousand  years. 

Nor  could  reason,  with  vision  confined  to  earth, 
infer  more  favorably  of  the  infinite  love  of  Jehovah. 
Her  native  incredulity  must  prompt  inquiries  be- 
yond her  power  to  solve.  If  "  God  is  love,"  why 
has  he  not  caused  this  orb,  made  by  his  hands,  and 
governed  by  his  power,  to  remain,  as  it  was  in  the  be- 
ginning, "  the  garden  of  the  Lord  ?"  Whence  come 
frightful  and  destroying  earthquakes  ?  Whence 
volcanic  outbreaks,  burying  towns  and  cities  in  a 
fiery  deluge  ?  War,  famine,  and  pestilence — are 
they  not  his  willing  slaves  ?  And  why  are  these 
ministers  of  vengeance  so  often  sent  forth  to  deso- 
late the  earth,  if  indeed  "  God  is  love  ?" 

Eternity  is  the  only  clue  to  the  labyrinth  of  time. 
That  clue  is  beyond  the  grasp  of  uninspired  reason. 
She  has  no  syllogism  in  her  ample  storehouse,  by 
which  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  world  beyond  the 
grave.  The  renowned  philosophers  of  classic 
Greece  could  not  by  searching  find  out 

«  The  undiscovered  country  from  whose  bourn 
No  traveller  returns." 

Even  the  magnificent  intellect  of  the  Roman  Tully, 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  91 

SO  "  rich  with  the  spoils  of  time,"  was  obhged  to 
confess  its  inability  to  decide  whether  the  immor- 
tahty  of  the  soul  was  a  pleasing  dream  or  a  glorious 
reality.  Before  inspiration  dawned,  man  had,  in 
every  age,  and  every  clime,  sought,  as  for  his  life, 
but  sought  in  vain,  to  discover  whether  the  grave 
is  not  the  place  of  eternal  sleep.  His  signal  failure, 
so  universal  and  long  continued,  even  when  aided 
by  the  lights  of  boasted  science,  demonstrates  that 
the  human  intellect  is  not  competent  of  itself  to 
ascertain  its  own  eternity.  But  when  the  Gospel 
superadded  her  voice  to  the  deep  whisperings  of 
nature,  the  candid  mind  could  not  distrust  the 
united  proofs  that  the  soul  is  to  live  forever. 

It  is  only  by  the  light  of  eternity  that  we  can 
decipher  and  "justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man." 
The  day  of  judgment  is  the  true  expositor  of  the 
mysteries  of  the  divine  government  below.  With- 
out the  comment  of  that  august  day,  the  exhibitions 
in  this  province  of  the  general  empire  would  but 
dimly  portray  the  moral  attributes  of  Jehovah. 
Unless  the  retributions  beyond  the  grave  had  been 
palpable  to  the  vision  of  the  sacred  writers,  they 
would  scarcely  have  ventured  to  predicate  of  the 
Ruler  of  the  universe  infinite  justice  and  infinite 
love.     If  the  authors  of  the  Gospel  were  but  the 


92  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

fabricators  of  a  fiction,  why  should  they  have  en- 
cumbered it  with  a  gratuitous  averment,  perhaps  in 
seeming  colHsion  with  the  demonstrations  of  earth  ? 
It  was  the  potency  of  truth  shed  abroad  in  their 
hearts  by  illumination  from  above,  which  com- 
pelled them  to  affirm  that  the  justice  and  love  of 
God  are  as  infinite  as  his  omniscience  or  almighti- 
ness.  And  even  unregenerate  reason  must  recog- 
nize and  feel  the  reality  of  this  sublime  truth,  if  with 
meekness  and  candor  she  will  lift  her  wondering 
eyes  from  time  to  eternity. 

The  very  style  of  the  Bible,  when  it  portrays  the 
attributes  of  Jehovah,  assumes  a  magnificence  and 
grandeur  above  the  reach  of  mortality.  As  the' 
sacred  writers  approach  the  awful  theme,  its  divine 
majesty  imparts  an  unearthly  majesty  to  their  dic- 
tion ;  the  shepherds  and  fishermen  of  Judea  rise  to 
an  elevation  of  language  never  attained  by  the 
loftiest  genius  of  classic  antiquity.  Homer  is  justly 
esteemed  the  first  of  heathen  authors,  and  the  de- 
lineation of  the  mythological  gods  always  invoked 
his  highest  powers.  His  nod  of  Jove  was  vaunting- 
ly  indicated  by  the  pagan  world  as  its  grandest 
specimen  of  the  sublime.  The  Athenian  Phidias 
selected  the  passage  as  the  subject  of  his  matchless 
statue,  in  which  he  sought  to  embody  the  fabled 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  93 

god  of  gods.     The  memorable  passage  is  thus  trans- 
lated by  Pope : 

"  He  spoke,  and  awful  bends  his  sable  brows ; 
Shakes  his  ambrosial  curls,  and  gives  the  nod, 
The  stamp  of  fate,  and  sanction  of  the  god ; 
High  heaven  with  trembling  the  dread  signal  took, 
And  all  Olympus  to  the  centre  shook." 

With  this  boasted  effusion  of  mythological  sub- 
limity, compare  the  following  extracts  from  Job, 
the  Psalms,  Isaiah,  and  Habakkuk.  We  have 
placed  the  extracts  in  juxtaposition,  that  their  col- 
lective and  overpowering  grandeur  may  the  more 
readily  appear. 

"  He  removeth  the  mountains,  and  they  know 
not ;  he  overturneth  them  in  his  anger ;  he  shaketh 
the  earth  out  of  her  place,  and  the  pillars  thereof 
tremble ;  he  commandeth  the  sun,  and  it  riseth  not, 
and  sealeth  up  the  stars ;  he  alone  spreadeth  out 
the  heavens  and  treadeth  upon  the  waves  of  the 
sea."*  "  Hell  is  naked  before  him,  and  destruction 
hath  no  covering ;  he  stretcheth  out  the  north  over 
the  empty  place,  and  hangeth  the  earth  upon 
nothing;  he  bindeth  up  the  waters  in  his  thick 
clouds,  and  the  cloud  is  not  rent  under   them."f 

*  Job  ix.  4  to  12.  t  Job  xxvL  6,  7,  8. 


94  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

"  In  my  distress,  I  called  unto  the  Lord,  and  cried 
unto  my  God.  He  heard  my  voice  out  of  his 
temple,  and  my  cry  came  before  him  even  into  his 
ears.  Then  the  earth  shook  and  trembled,  the 
foundations  also  of  the  hills  moved  and  were  shaken 
because  he  was  wroth.  There  went  up  a  smoke 
out  of  his  nostrils,  and  fire  out  of  his  mouth  de- 
voured ;  coals  were  kindled  by  it.  He  bowed  the 
heavens  also  and  came  down,  and  darkness  was 
under  his  feet.  And  he  rode  upon  a  cherub  and  did 
fly,  yea,  he  did  fly  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind. 
He  made  darkness  his  secret  place ;  his  pavilion 
round  about  him  were  dark  waters  and  thick  clouds 
of  the  sky."*  "  O  Lord  my  God,  thou  art  very 
great,  thou  art  clothed  with  honor  and  majesty; 
who  coverest  thyself  with  light  as  with  a  garment, 
who  stretcheth  out  the  heavens  like  a  curtain  ;  who 
layetli  the  beams  of  his  chambers  in  the  waters, 
who  maketh  the  clouds  his  chariot,  who  walketh 
upon  the  wings  of  the  wind ;  who  maketh  his  angels 
spirits,  his  ministers  a  flaming  fire ;  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  earth  that  it  should  not  be  re- 
moved forever.  Thou  coverest  it  with  the  deep' 
as  with  a  garment;  the  waters   stood   above  the 

*  Psalms  xviil  6  to  12. 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  95 

mountains.  At  thy  rebuke  they  fled,  at  the  voice 
of  thy  thunder  they  hasted  away."*'  "Who  hath 
measured  the  waters  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand,  and 
meted  out  heaven  with  the  span,  and  comprehended 
the  dust  of  the  earth  in  a  measure,  and  weighed 
the  mountains  in  scales  and  the  hills  in  a  balance  ? 
Behold  the  nations  are  as  a  drop  of  the  bucket,  and 
are  counted  as  the  small  dust  of  the  balance ;  behold 
he  taketh  up  the  isles  as  a  very  little  thing.  It  is 
he  that  sitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the  earth,  and 
the  inhabitants  thereof  are  as  grasshoppers;  that 
stretcheth  out  the  heavens  as  a  curtain,  and 
spreadeth  them  out  as  a  tent  to  dwell  in."f  "  He 
stood  and  measured  the  earth ;  he  beheld  and  drove 
asunder  the  nations ;  and  the  everlasting  mountains 
were  scattered,  the  perpetual  hills  did  bow ;  his 
ways  are  everlasting.  Was  the  Lord  displeased 
against  the  rivers,  was  thine  anger  against  the 
rivers,  was  thy  wrath  against  the  sea,  that  thou  didst 
ride  upon  thine  horses  and  thy  chariots  of  salva- 
tion ?  The  mountains  saw  thee  and  they  trembled, 
the  overflowing  of  the  water  passed  by ;  the  deep 
uttered  his  voice  and  Ufted  up  his  hands  on  high."t 


*  Psalms  civ.  1  to  8.  f  Isaiah  jd.  12,  15,  22. 

X  Habakkuk  iiL  6,  8,  10.  / 


96  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

Our  selection  of  these  passages  from  the  Jewish 
Scriptures  ought  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  deviation 
from  the  direct  Hne  of  our  argument.  The  union 
between  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  is  indis- 
soluble ;  and  any  internal  proof  of  the  inspiration  of 
"  The  Law  and  the  Prophets/'  tends  to  confirm  the 
internal  evidences  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Gospel. 

The  redemption  of  the  world  by  the  vicarious 
sufferings  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  a  vital  element  of  Gos- 
pel theology.  The  incarnation  of  the  second  per- 
son of  the  Trinity  is,  doubtless,  the  greatest  prod- 
igy the  universe  ever  beheld.  Compared  with  this 
wonder  of  wonders,  the  other  miracles  recorded  in 
the  Gospel,  such  as  the  healing  of  the  sick,  the 
control  of  the  angry  elements,  and  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead,  lose  their  resplendence,  as  "  the  stars 
hide  their  diminished  heads"  in  the  presence  of  the 
sun.  It  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  the  immolation 
of  an  incarnate  God  for  human  sin  was  an  event 
well  calculated  to  awaken  the  incredulity  of  the 
natural  heart.  We  need  not  be  greatly  surprised 
that  it  appeared  "  unto  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block, 
and  unto  the  Greeks  fooUshness."  Its  seeming 
impossibility  has  been  the  stronghold  of  infidelity 
for  eighteen  centuries.  And  there  are  twilight 
moments  when  even  the  faith  of  the  pious  chris- 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  97 

tian  is  ready  to  falter  and  to  faint,  as  he  attempts  to 
grasp  the  stupendous  thought  of  having  been  pur- 
chased by  the  blood  of  God. 

The  astounding  tale  of  the  descent,  incarnation, 
sufferings  and  death  of  the  coeternal  and  coequal 
Son  of  the  Highest,  would  not  have  been  admitted 
into  a  work  of  fiction,  fabricated  by  adroit  impos- 
tors, and  wearing  the  name  of  truth.  If  the  Gos- 
pel is  a  fable,  the  attribute  of  matchless  skill  must 
be  freely  awarded  to  its  authors.  If  it  is  not  the 
inspiration  of  God,  it  looks  down  from  its  "bad 
eminence"  of  deceit  and  Jiypocrisy,  as  from  a 
mountain  height,  upon  all  the  other  efforts  of  the 
human  mind.  It  is  almost  equally  miraculous, 
whether  viewed  as  a  divine  or  as  a  mortal  produc- 
tion. Hell  is  not  too  deep,  nor  heaven  too  high, 
nor  earth  too  broad  for  its  grasp.  It  scans  time  as 
a  speck  in  its  horizon,  and  is  familiarly  at  home  in 
the  bosom  of  eternity.  With  an  unfaltering  hand 
it  delineates  the  attributes  of  "  the  unknown  God," 
and  the  picture  bears  on  its  face  the  indelible 
stamp  of  verity.  It  dissects  the  moral  anatomy  of 
our  being,  as  its  material  structure  was  never  laid 
open  by  the  scientific  knife.  "  Know  thyself," 
was  an  abstract  proverb  of  Grecian  wisdom.  "  Ex- 
amine yourselves,"  is  a  mandate  of  the  Gospel,  not 


98  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

left  by  her  as  a  cold  abstraction.  She  holds  up  to 
man  a  glass  in  which  are  presented  his  spiritual 
form  and  features,  large  and  true  as  life.  In  the 
mirror  of  the  Gospel  he  may  study  the  secrets  of 
his  own  nature  better  than  in  the  multitudinous 
libraries  of  classic  learning. 

If  the  Gospel  is  a  fable,  the  great  artificers  who 
fabricated  it  must  have  been  profoundly  intimate 
with  the  principles  of  our  common  being,  and  with 
the  long-established  laws  of  fiction.  They  well 
knew  that  verisimilitude  is  vitally  essential  to  such 
fictitious  writings  as  would  assume  the  passport  of 
truth,  and  that,  to  gain  even  a  temporary  mastery 
over  the  pride  of  intellect,  falsehood  must  needs 
dissever  itself  from  improbability.  Even  the  po- 
etic muse,  with  all  her  license  and  all  her  witchery, 
must,  to  maintain  her  sway  when  she  gives  "to 
airy  nothing  a  local  habitation  and  a  name,"  array 
her  fairy  thoughts  in  the  counterfeited  semblance 
of  truth.  Would  she  dally  with  the  understanding, 
and  for  awhile  beguile  its  faith,  she  must  not  insult 
it  with  wanton  infractions  of  common-place  prob- 
ability. If  the  writers  of  the  Gospel  had  sought  to 
be  the  authors  of  a  theological  romance,  they  need 
not  have  startled  the  native  skepticism  of  the  hu- 
man heart  by  calling  down  a  God  from  his  throne. 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  99 

It  was  not  necessary  for  the  success  of  the  romance, 
that  its  hero  should  be  the  second  person  of  the 
Trinity.  A  perfect  man,  or  an  angel  exalted  as 
far  above  Gabriel  as  he  is  above  mortality,  might 
have  been  presented  as  the  preacher  and  pattern 
of  a  loftier  faith  and  purer  code  of  ethics  than  time 
had  before  known.  Thus  modified,  the  spiritual 
fable  might  have  been  accommodated  by  its  match- 
less authors  to  the  prejudices  of  the  Jews  and  to 
the  pride  of  the  gentiles.  The  phantom  bark  might 
have  been  sent  along  the  flood  of  time,  impelled  by 
the  favoring  breezes  of  human  passion,  and  the 
current,  deep  and  strong,  of  the  carnal  heart. 

It  was  not  the  caprice  of  man,  but  the  almighti- 
ness  of  truth,  which  imparted  to  the  scriptural 
scheme  of  redemption  the  seemingly  incredible 
mystery  of  its  vicarious  sacrifice.  Had  the  Gos- 
pel been  a  fiction,  it  would  not  have  been  made  to 
rest  on  the  miraculous  conception  of  the  Son  of 
God,  his  manger-birth,  his  servile  toil,  his  abject 
poverty,  his  bloody  sweat,  his  voluntary  submis- 
sion to  scoffings,  scourgings,  spittings,  and  igno- 
minious crucifixion.  Borne  down  by  such  apparent 
impossibilities,  fiction  must  have  sunk  under  its 
own  weight,  as  the  stone  sinks  in  the  waves,  unless 
sustained  by  a  succession  of  corroborative  miracles. 


100      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

And  its  authors  could  not  have  imagined  that  the 
God  of  truth  would  suspend  or  vary  the  fixed  laws 
of  His  empire  to  authenticate  a  cunningly-devised 
fable.  Yet  the  Gospel  confidently  predicted  its 
speedy  and  wide  difiusion.  Had  twice  ten  years 
rolled  away  without  a  multiplication  of  proselytes, 
it  must  have  fallen  a  victim  to  its  own  falsified  pre- 
dictions, and  overwhelmed  its  fabricators  with  the 
contempt  and  vengeance  of  an  insulted  and  infuri- 
ated world.  The  authors  of  the  Gospel  were  either 
inspired  or  mad.  Its  very  improbabilities  confirm 
its  truth. 

Heathen  mythology  represented,  indeed,  that  its 
fabled  gods  sometimes  assumed  the  form  and  habi- 
tations of  men.  But  such  transformations  had  not 
self-immolation  for  their  object.  Classic  fable 
never  pretended  that  any  of  her  deities  descended 
to  earth  and  borrowed  the  garb  of  humanity,  merely 
to  suffer  and  to  die.  The  crucifixion  of  the  "  Lord  of 
glory"  was  an  original  conception  of  the  Bible. 
Should  the  legendary  lore  of  the  olden  time  have 
intimated  that  the  Olympic  Jove,  or  the  Hindoo 
Vishnu,  had  arrayed  himself  in  flesh,  and  lived,  and 
suffered,  and  died,  as  the  Gospel  affirms  that  its  in- 
carnate Jehovah  lived  and  suffered  and  died,  the 
conceit  would  have  been  held  too  extravagant  for 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  101 

the  indulgent  faith  of  pagan  Greece,  or  even  for  the 
passive  credulity  of  oriental  climes. 

But  although  the  incarnation  of  the  uncreated 
Son  would  not  have  been  devised  for  a  fiction 
claiming  to  be  true,  and  intended  for  general  diffu- 
sion and  belief,  yet  if  reason  will  study  the  sacred 
theme  by  the  scriptural  lamp,  with  the  diligence, 
fidelity  and  candor  bestowed  upon  the  sciences  of 
earth,  she  must  perceive  in  the  Gospel  scheme  of 
salvation  "  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of 
God."  Enlightened  by  the  rays  of  the  "  Sun  of 
righteousness,"  she  cannot  withhold  her  credence 
to  the  tremendous  truths  that  God  is  infinitely  holy 
and  just,  as  well  as  infinitely  merciful ;  that  the 
human  race,  with  souls  immortal,  are  at  enmity 
with  their  Creator ;  and  that  such  enmity,  if  con- 
tinued, must  inevitably  draw  upon  them  eternal 
perdition.  Then  how  could  infinite  love  receive 
into  its  bosom  sinful  and  polluted  creatures  without 
staining  the  purity  of  infinite  holiness  and  infinite 
justice?  This  is  a  problem  which  earth  could 
never  have  solved  ;  but  earth,  divested  of  her  prej- 
udice and  pride,  may  see  and  admire  the  wisdom 
of  the  heavenly  solution. 

That  God  could  not  forgive  iniquity  without  ade- 
quate satisfaction,   is    a    scriptural  truism  which 


102  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

reason  might,  perhaps,  have  inferred  from  the  Hght 
of  nature.  The  capricious  pardon  of  offences 
would  shake  the  pillars  even  of  earthly  jurispru- 
dence. How  much  less  compatible  would  it  be 
with  the  unchangeable  jurisprudence  of  heaven! 
Suffering  is  the  appropriate  penalty  of  sin.  If 
offenders  are  to  be  delivered  from  the  penalty,  their 
deliverance  can  only  be  effected  by  the  vicarious 
suffering  of  a  sinless  substitute.  But  where  was  to 
be  found  a  sinless  substitute  of  adequate  dignity  to 
atone  for  the  iniquities  of  a  world  ?  The  vicarious 
sufferings  of  an  insect  of  the  field,  and  the  vicarious 
sufferings  of  legions  of  archangels  would  have  been 
alike  inefficacious.  Nothing  but  the  expiatory 
agonies  of  an  incarnate  God  could  have  satisfied  the 
awful  justice  of  an  offended  God.  Love  prevailed, 
known  only  in  the  pavilion  of  the  Trinity.  Its 
second  glorious  person  made  himself  the  voluntary 
substitute  for  transgressors.  Man  had  rebelled, 
and  God  forgave.  On  Calvary  was  displayed  the 
resplendent  rainbow  of  divine  perfections,  blending 
in  ineffable  harmony  infinite  justice,  infinite  wisdom, 
and  infinite  love.  On  this  phenomenon  of  the  uni- 
verse, "new  and  strange,"  in  the  flight  of  never- 
beginning  ages,  the  hierarchies  of  heaven  will  ever 
gaze  with  holy  curiosity,  wonder,  and  delight. 


W  THE    THEOLOGY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  103 

Uninspired  reason  would  never  have  soared  on 
its  own  wings  to  the  mighty  thought  of  the  incar- 
nation and  sufferings  of  the  Creator  of  the  worlds. 
In  exploring  the  human  heart,  it  could  have  found 
there  no  pulsation  prompting  the  conception  of  that 
love  which  brought  down  to  earth  the  Son  of 
God  to  die  for  his  enemies  the  death  foreshadowed 
by  the  bloody  sweat  of  Gethsemane.  Reason  must, 
indeed,  admire  the  salvation  proclaimed  in  the 
Gospel,  as  the  astronomer  admires  the  spangled 
heavens ;  but  reason  could  no  more  have  con- 
trived that  salvation  than  the  astronomer  could 
have  formed  a  star. 

The  personality  and  agencies  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
constitute  the  third  department  of  evangelical 
theology.  The  union  of  three  divine  persons  in 
one  God,  each  entitled  to  the  adoration  of  the  uni- 
verse— each  self-existent,  eternal,  omnipresent,  om- 
niscient— is  the  most  incomprehensible  doctrine  of 
our  holy  religion.  Though  to  the  believer  un- 
speakably precious,  this  primary  article  of  evangel- 
ical truth  has  ever  been  to  reasoning  pride  "  a  rock 
of  offence."  Unitarianism  was  from  the  beginning 
the  besetting  heresy  of  Christendom ;  and  it  threat- 
ened for  centuries  to  swallow  up  the  true  faith. 
Aware  of  the  repugnance  of  the  human  mind  to 


104      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

give  credence  to  what  it  cannot  comprehend,  the 
Arabian  deceiver,  though  he  professed  belief  in  the 
inspiration  of  the  Bible,  repudiated  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity,  and  thus  facilitated  the  triumphs  of  the 
Koran  over  kingdoms  and  continents.  Had  the 
Gospel  been  a  fable,  its  fabricators  would  not  have 
made  the  plurality  of  the  persons  of  the  Godhead  a 
prominent  article  of  their  creed.  It  was  the  inspi- 
ration of  heaven,  and  not  the  craft  of  earth,  that 
announced  the  existence,  and  commanded  the  equal 
and  undivided  worship  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  One  in  Three,  and 
Three  in  One.  The  startling  mystery  would  have 
been  eschewed  by  the  cunning  of  adroit  impostors, 
combined  to  give  wide  currency  to  a  fiction  which 
arrogated  the  character  of  truth.  The  agencies  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  in  the  work  of  redemption,  will 
constitute  the  subject  of  a  future  and  distinct 
chapter. 


.    CHAPTER  V. 

THE   MORALITY   OF   THE   GOSPEL. 

Gospel  system  of  ethics  like  solar  system  in  fewness  and  simplicity 
of  its  principles — Consists  in  love  to  God  and  love  to  man — Reg- 
ulates thoughts  and  intents  of  heart^Disclaims  heroic  virtues — 
Places  humility  in  front  rank  of  its  graces — Has  chivalry  of  its 
own — Paul  and  Julius  Caesar  contrasted — Other  evangelical  graces 
— Forgiveness  of  injuries — Universal  beneficence — Victory  over 
world— Sanctions  of  Gospel. 

There  is  a  striking  analogy  in  their  simplicity 
and  grandeur,  between  the  moral  and  the  physical 
works  of  the  Creator.  How  symmetrical,  how  ma- 
jestic, are  the  movements  of  the  planetary  spheres ! 
And  yet  they  are  impelled  and  governed  by  two 
very  simple  principles ;  the  discursive,  technically 
called  the  centrifugal  force,  and  the  attraction  of 
gravitation ;  the  former  urging  them  onward  into 
the  regions  of  space,  and  the  latter  causing  them  to 
revolve  harmoniously  round  the  central  sun.  Prin- 
ciples equally  limited  in  number,  still  more  simple 
in  character,  and  intelligible  as  daylight  to  the  in- 
tellect of  early  childhood,  form  the  ruling  elements 
of  the  Gospel  system.     "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 

thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 

5* 


OF  T^j^K 


106      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE.         * 

and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first  and  great 
commandment.  And  the  second  is  like  unto  it ; 
Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  On  these 
two  commandments  hang  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets."* 

Thus  did  Jesus  Christ  declare  that  love  to  God 
and  love  to  man  were  the  two  constituents,  potent 
yet  simple,  of  his  divine  system ;  the  love  to  man 
being  its  discursive  force,  and  the  love  to  God  its 
gravitating  power;  the  former  expanding  the  soul 
into  general  philanthropy,  the  latter  drawing  it 
home  to  the  central  Sun  of  righteousness.  Had  not 
"  sin  marred  all,"  the  love  to  God  and  the  love  to 
man  would  have  preserved  the  same  sublime  har- 
mony in  the  moral  system  that  the  propelling  and 
the  attractive  forces  have  produced  in  the  physical. 
But  sin  was  a  malign  comet,  loosened  from  its 
orbit,  and  carrying  in  its  lawless  track  dismay  and 
destruction. 

The  obligation  of  supreme  affection  to  the  Crea- 
tor and  Governor  of  the  universe  was  developed  by 
the  Gospel  and  her  Jewish  predecessor.  It  lay  not 
within  the  ken  of  the  uninspired  intellect.  Fallen 
reason  could  no  more  have  discovered  it  in  all  its 

*  Matthew  xxil  31,  88,  89. 


THE    MORALITY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  107 

bearings,  than  the  naked  eye  could  have  discovered 
the  existence  and  energies  of  physical  gravitation. 
The  material  telescope  was  necessary  for  the  one 
discovery ;  the  scriptural  telescope  for  the  other. 
The  light  of  depraved  nature  failed  to  ascertain  the 
perfections  of  the  true  God.  How  then  could  it 
have  ascertained  the  obligation  of  the  creature  to 
love  him  with  all  the  heart,  and  with  all  the  soul, 
and  with  all  the  mind  ?  The  very  multifariousness 
of  the  heathen  divinities  precluded  the  possibility 
of  concentrated  affection  for  any  one  of  them. 
Athens  recognized  thirty  thousand  false  deities* 
Hence  the  prevalent  saying  that,  in  the  city  of 
Minerva,  it  was  easier  to  find  a  god  than  a  man. 
The  saying  might  have  been  of  Egyptian  origin ; 
but  it  found  a  congenial  domicil  in  classic  Greece. 
Yet  since  Revelation  has  unfolded  the  being  and 
perfections  of  the  true  God,  even  fallen  reason  must 
perceive  and  admit  the  obligation  of  loving  him 
with  supreme  devotion.  The  Creator  justly  claims 
the  homage  of  his  rational  creatures ;  and  the  in- 
terchange of  love  between  him  and  the  intellectual 
emanations  of  himself  is  the  silken  cord,  stronger 
than  chain  of  iron,  which  should  bind  together  the 
diversified  ranks  of  spiritual  being.  There  is  a 
transforming  power  in  love.     Even   love   to  the 


108  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

creature  assimilates  us  to  the  object  beloved.  Love 
to  God  restores  to  the  renovated  soul  the  image 
and  likeness  of  its  Creator,  which  sin  had  defaced. 
If  the  philosopher  or  patriot  would  elevate  to  its 
true  standard  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  let  him 
press  home  the  obligation  of  the  first  and  great 
commandment  of  the  Gospel.  Love  to  God  is  the 
food  on  which  angels  feed ;  and  if  it  universally  be- 
came the  spiritual  aliment  of  earth,  it  would  trans- 
mute mortals  into  the  similitude  of  the  cherubim 
and  seraphim. 

"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  was 
a  mandate  promulgated  by  the  Gospel.  It  was 
unknown  to  the  heathen  world.  Before  the  great 
moral  Luminary  appeared  above  the  horizon,  self 
was  the  ruling  god  of  this  world.  Poetry  decked 
with  her  own  never-fading  wreaths  the  brow  of  the 
idol.  The  immortal  heroes  of  the  Grecian  and  Ro- 
man epic  were  just  as  selfish  as  was  the  Stygian 
hero  of  Milton's  Paradise  Lost.  Even  history  has 
condescended  to  hide  the  idol's  deformity  under 
dazzUng  appellations.  It  was  selfishness  that 
moved  Alexander  to  conquer  the  world,  and  then 
to  weep  that  he  had  not  another  world  to  conquer. 
It  was  not  to  save  his  country,  but  to  serve  himself, 
that  Csesar  passed  the  Rubicon.     Yet  has  history 


THE    MORALITY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  109 

baptized  the  ambition  of  conquerors  with  the  name 
of  heroism  !     It  is  a  baptism  of  blood. 

The  Gospel  held  no  dalliance  with  idolatry  in 
any  of  its  modifications.  It  commanded  selfishness 
to  pluck  out  its  right  eye,  to  cut  off  its  right  hand. 
It  said  to  the  ruling  god  of  this  world,  "  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  It  interdicted  not  a 
moderated  self-love.  On  the  contrary,  it  declared, 
"  if  any  provide  not  for  his  own"  he  "  is  worse  than 
an  infidel."  But  it  required  that  love  of  self  and 
love  of  human  kind  should  be  regulated  by  the 
same  just  standard.  Selfishness  is  but  the  syno- 
nyme  of  sin.  For  its  own  gratification  it  would 
scatter  through  the  universe  "  fire-brands,  arrows, 
and  death,"  and  in  the  midst  of  the  ruins  would  cry, 
"  Am  I  not  in  sport  ?"  It  once  attempted  to  de- 
molish the  eternal  throne.  Satan  was  the  father, 
and  is  the  mirror  of  selfishness.  Let  the  idolaters 
of  self  contemplate  his  hideous  lineaments,  and  be- 
hold themselves  as  in  a  glass. 

The  name  of  selfishness  survives  in  heaven  only 
as  a  beacon  to  check  the  incipient  movements  of 
forbidden  desire.  Angels  love  their  fellows  as 
themselves ;  and  so  should  mortals  love  their  neigh- 
bors. And  the  evangelical  meaning  of  the  term 
neighbor    embraces     the     whole    human    family. 


110  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

Should  all  of  terrestrial  birth  yield  cordial  allegiance 
to  the  second,  as  well  as  to  the  first  great  command- 
ment of  the  Gospel — should  selfishness  in  all  its 
forms  be  dragged  forth  from  its  hiding-places  and 
sacrificed  upon  the  altar  of  universal  philanthropy, 
what  a  change  would  pass  over  the  moral  aspect 
of  our  world !  The  clangor  of  war  would  be 
hushed  ;  the  breath  of  slander  ride  no  longer  "  on 
the  posting  winds ;"  the  descendants  of  the  primi- 
tive pair  would  become  brethren  in  affection  as 
well  as  in  lineage ;  and  earth  would  bloom  again 
into  its  original  Eden. 

The  two  great  commandments  of  the  Gospel 
are  "  like  unto"  each  other ;  their  simihtude  is  af- 
firmed by  their  divine  Author.  Love  is  their 
common  lever;  it  is  the  impulsive  principle  by 
which  the  Gospel  moves  the  world.  Even  religion 
is  nothing  without  love.  Though  it  has  the  gift  of 
prophecy,  and  understands  all  mysteries  and  all 
knowledge,  and  has  faith  so  that  it  could  remove 
mountains ;  though  it  bestows  all  its  goods  to  feed 
the  poor,  and  gives  its  body  to  be  burned;  yet, 
without  love,  it  is  "  as  sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling 
cymbal."  Love  is  the  soul  of  the  universe.  God 
is  Love  and  Love  is  God.  It  was  Love  that  form- 
ed the  worlds  and  peopled  them  with  intelligent 


THE    MORALITY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  HI 

beings  capable  of  worshipping  and  serving  their 
Creator.  When  man  had  fallen,  it  was  Love  that 
achieved  his  redemption;  it  was  Love  that  sweated 
forth  blood  in  the  garddh ;  it  was  Love  that  hung 
suspended,  a  voluntary  victim,  upon  the  cross. 

In  his  palmy  state  of  primeval  innocence,  man 
was  love.  Made  in  the  image  and  after  the  like- 
ness of  his  Creator,  love  was  the  controlling  element 
of  his  nature.  As  God  is  love  in  infinitude,  man 
was  love  in  miniature.  But  the  poison  of  sin 
transmuted  into  idolatrous  selfishness  his  originally 
pure  and  expansive  affections.  It  was  the  benign 
object  of  the  Gospel  to  restore  the  predominance 
of  holy  love  in  the  human  bosom.  Hence  its  two 
great  commandments,  comprising  within  their  am- 
ple purview  the  whole  compass  of  mortal  duties. 
In  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  consists  the  entire 
system  of  evangelical  ethics. 

The  Gospel's  mighty  lever  is  original  and  unique. 
Equally  original  and  unique  is  the  locality  of  its 
influences.  Civil  legislation  aims  only  at  the  outer 
man.  It  aspires  not  to  cleanse  the  turbid  fountain 
within.  The  legislation  of  Jesus  Christ  grapples 
with  the  heart.  It  regulates  "the  thoughts  and 
intents."  It  was  the  heart  that  the  fall  contami- 
nated ;  it  is  the  heart  that  the  Gospel  seeks  to  cure. 


112      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

Jesus  Christ  "knew  what  was  in  man;"  He  was 
profoundly  skilled  in  the  spiritual  anatomy  of  the 
being  made  by  his  own  hands  ;  He  well  under- 
stood that  the  heart  holds  the  same  central  position 
in  our  moral  system  as  in  our  physical ;  that  in  both 
it  is  the  spring  of  action — the  citadel  of  life.  He 
declared,  "  Out  of  the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts, 
murders,  adulteries,  fornications,  thefts,  false  wit- 
ness, blasphemies :  these  are  the  things  which  de- 
file a  man."*  And  of  external  sanctity,  covering 
spiritual  corruption.  He  affirmed  that  it  was  "  like 
unto  whited  sepulchres,  which  indeed  appear  beau- 
tiful outward,  but  are  within  full  of  dead  men's 
bones  and  of  all  uncleanness."t 

The  morality  of  the  Gospel  is  a  new  edition  of 
the  law  of  Sinai,  revised,  interpreted,  and  expanded 
by  its  author.  "  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery," 
was  thundered  forth  from  the  quaking  mount. 
The  Gospel  brought  home  to  the  very  citadel  of 
life  Sinai's  awful  mandate,  "Whosoever  looketh 
upon  a  woman  to  lust  after  her,  hath  committed 
adultery  with  her  already  in  his  heart."  From  the 
great  fountain  of  the  heart,  poisoned  by  sin,  flow 
all  the  impure  torrents  and  rivulets  of  human  ac- 

*  Matthew  xv.  19,  20.  f  Matthew  xxiil  2*7. 


THE    MORALITY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  113 

tion  and  thought.  Into  this  reservoir  of  pollution 
the  Gospel  casts  its  healing  medicines.  The  om- 
niscient Physician  never  forgot  that  the  purification 
of  the  fountain  was  the  only  appropriate  means  of 
purifying  the  streams. 

Frigid  will  ever  be  that  system  of  morality, 
which 

"  Plays  round  the  head  but  comes  not  to  the  heart" 

Necessarily  cold  and  inefficient  must  be  a  code  of 
ethical  abstractions  deriving  no  warmth  from  the 
affections.  Holy  love,  shed  abroad  in  the  soul,  can 
alone  secure  the  faithful  performance  of  all  the 
social  and  religious  duties.  The  moral  lever  of 
the  Gospel  fails  not,  like  the  lever  of  Archimedes, 
for  want  of  a  place  whereon  to  stand.  It  is  self- 
poised  on  its  own  sure  foundations  of  love  to  God 
and  love  for  man. 

The  contrast  between  the  practical  operation  of 
heathen  ethics  and  of  the  ethics  of  the  Gospel, 
shows  that  the  source  of  the  one  is  terrestrial,  and 
that  the  source  of  the  other  must  be  divine.  What 
has  the  code  of  polytheism  ever  achieved  for  the 
reformation  of  humankind?  Yet  within  the  first 
half-century  of  its  existence  the  faith  of  the  car- 
penter's Son  accomplished  a  moral  revolution  of  the 


114  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

world,  no  less  miraculous  than  his  healing  the  sick, 
controlling  the  elements,  and  raising  the  dead. 
"  See  how  these  christians  live" — "  See  how  these 
christians  die" — were  appeals  to  infidelity  by  the 
infant  church,  perhaps  more  heart-touching  and 
efficient  than  any  of  its  ordinary  signs  and  won- 
ders. Even  the  unbelieving  Gibbon  admits  and 
affects  to  eulogize  the  sanctity  of  the  primitive 
faithful ;  and  assigns  that  sanctity  as  one  of  his  five 
causes  of  the  Gospel's  early  and  astounding  spread. 
Christianity  disclaims  what  are  called,  in  classic 
language,  the  heroic  virtues.  Among  these  alleged 
virtues  is  ranked  the  love  of  fame.  It  was  the 
most  stirring  impulse  of  heathen  antiquity.  To 
the  good  opinion  of  his  fellow- mortals,  the  christian 
is  not  indifferent.  Yet  thirst  of  earthly  renown 
cannot  become  the  absorbing  principle  of  him  who 
aspires  after  "a  crown  of  glory  that  fadeth  not 
away."  Revenge  was  a  passion  of  the  pagans, 
sanctioned  by  the  example  of  their  gods.  It  was 
the  choicest  beverage  of  unbaptized  humanity. 
More  unrelenting  than  death,  it  often  wreaked  its 
vengeance  on  the  dead.  Homer's  Achilles,  though, 
perhaps,  a  fictitious  character,  was  drawn  by  the 
hand  of  a  master  in  strict  accordance  with  the  sen- 
timents of  heathen  antiquity.     It  offended  not  the 


THE    MORALITY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  115 

taste  of  refined  Athens,  nor  that  of  chivalrous 
Rome.  Yet  the  Achilles  of  Homer,  in  the  very 
eye  of  parental  and  conjugal  affection  outraged 
and  frantic,  dragged  at  his  horse's  heels  round  the 
walls  of  Troy,  the  lifeless  body  of  his  gallant  rival. 
How  hostile  is  the  passion  of  revenge  to  the  ethics 
of  Him,  who  laid  down  his  life  for  his  enemies! 
Martial  heroism  stood  at  the  very  head  of  heathen 
perfections.  Adulation  pursued  the  blood-stained 
footsteps  of  the  conqueror  while  he  lived;  and 
when  he  had  waded  through  slaughter  to  the  grave, 
the  voice  of  millions  raised  him  to  the  skies,  and 
worshipped  him  as  a  god.  But  martial  heroism 
found  no  place  in  the  peaceful  ethics  of  the  cross. 

Our  hmits  allow  not  a  detailed  examination  of 
all  the  christian  graces.  We  can  but  glance  at  a 
few  of  them.  And  as  we  approach  the  lovely 
group,  our  eyes  repose  with  complacency  on  humil- 
ity's modest  and  retiring  form.  "  Blessed  are  the 
poor  in  spirit,"  was  the  first  of  the  beatitudes  of 
the  mount.  The  great  Schoolmaster,  who  taught 
by  example  as  well  as  precept,  was  himself  "meek 
and  lowly  in  heart."  Humility  had  no  place  in 
the  ethics  of  polytheism.  The  unpretending  virtue 
would  have  been  deemed  pusillanimous  by  classic 
antiquity.     It  is  a  flower  uncongenial  to  earth ;  its 


116      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

native  soil  is  heaven ;  it  v^as  transplanted  into  our 
sphere  from  the  skies.  No  pagan  sage  v^^ould  have 
incorporated  into  his  ethical  code  the  injunction,  so 
opposed  to  the  impulses  of  the  natural  heart,  "  Who- 
soever shall  smite  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to 
him  the  other  also." 

But  even  reason,  v^hen  enlightened  by  the  lamp 
of  Revelation,  must  perceive  that  humility  is  an 
appropriate  and  primary  element  in  a  moral  system 
v^hose  centre  is  the  Sun  of  righteousness.  Supreme 
love  of  God  must  be  preceded  and  accompanied  by- 
the  knov^ledge  of  his  perfections.  And  v^ho  can 
steadfastly  contemplate  the  glorious  perfections  of 
Jehovah,  without  a  deep  sense  of  self-abasement  ? 
Job  exclaimed,  "  I  have  heard  of  thee  by  the  hear- 
ing of  the  ear ;  but  now  mine  eye  seeth  thee ;  where- 
fore I  abhor  myself  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes."* 
Humility  increases  in  the  soul,  in  exact  proportion 
to  its  increase  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  Him 
who  governs  the  universe.  The  saint  in  heaven  is 
doubtless  humbler  than  the  saint  on  earth.  In  the 
ascending  ranks  of  angels  and  archangels,  of  cher- 
ubim and  seraphim,  of  principalities  and  powers, 
we  may  believe  that  humility  augments  with  each 

*  Job  xlii.  5,  6. 


THE    MORALITY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  117 

successive  grade  of  the  ascent,  from  the  subaltern 
^irits  that  watch  the  celestial  gates,  to  "  Gabriel" 
that  stands  "in  the  presence  of  God."  And  if 
pride  is  abhorrent  to  a  holy  creature  who  has  never 
swerved  from  his  "  first  estate,"  how  unbecoming 
must  it  be  to  a  fallen  sinner,  rescued  from  perdition 
by  the  free  and  sovereign  grace  of  God ! 

The  heroism  of  the  Gospel  claims  brotherhood 
with  its  humility.  There  is  a  christian  as  well  as 
a  martial  chivalry.  Truthless  is  the  taunt  of  infi- 
delity, that  the  faith  of  the  cross,  though  it  may 
have  produced  martyrs,  never  produced  heroes. 
True  heroism  consists  in  the  dedication  of  the  soul 
to  some  lofty  and  worthy  object,  and  its  undeviat- 
ing  pursuit  of  that  object  in  defiance  of  privations, 
hardships,  dangers,  and  death.  In  all  these  attri- 
butes of  greatness,  the  primitive  heroes  of  Christian- 
ity looked  down,  as  from  a  celestial  elevation,  upon 
the  warlike  heroes  bodied  forth  in  profane  history 
and  classic  fiction. 

Take  as  an  example,  the  tent-maker  of  Corinth. 
Compare  the  chivalrous  Paul  with  the  mightiest  of 
the  Caesars.  Both  excelled  in  extent  of  mental 
attainments,  in  glowing  eloquence,  in  loftiness  of 
imagination,  in  profoundness  of  intellect,  in  un- 
daunted intrepidity.     But  here  ceased  the  simili- 


118  THE   GOSPEL    ITS    OWN   ADVOCATE. 

tude.  Julius  worshipped  self  as  his  only  god. 
Paul  was  the  devoted,  the  disinterested  worshipper 
of  Him  who  "sitteth  in  the  heavens."  He  of 
Rome  sought 

"  To  wade  through  slaughter  to  a  throne, 
And  shut  the  gates  of  mercy  on  mankind." 

He  of  Tarsus  untiringly  strove,  at  every  personal 
sacrifice,  to  conduct  a  fallen  race  to  the  portals  of 
paradise.  The  writings  of  Caesar  abound  in  start- 
ling egotisms.  Paul  rarely  indulged  in  holy  boast- 
ing. But  he  ever  gloried  in  sufferings  of  which 
unsanctified  humanity  would  have  been  ashamed. 
"Of  the  Jews  five  times  received  I  forty  stripes 
save  one.  Thrice  was  I  beaten  with  rods ;  once 
was  I  stoned ;  thrice  I  suffered  shipwreck ;  a  night 
and  a  day  have  I  been  in  the  deep ;  in  journeyings 
often ;  in  perils  of  waters,  in  perils  of  robbers,  in 
perils  by  mine  own  countrymen,  in  perils  by  the 
heathen,  in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in  the  wil- 
derness, in  perils  in  the  sea,  in  perils  among  false 
brethren ;  in  weariness  and  painfulness,  in  watch- 
ings  often,  in  hunger  and  thirst,  in  fastings  often,- 
in  cold  and  nakedness."* 

*  2  Corinthians  xi.  24-28. 


n 


THE    MORALITY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  119 

Had  not  this  thrilling  account  of  the  tent-maker 
been  true,  its  falsity  would  have  been  detected  and 
exposed  by  the  Corinthians,  to  whom  it  was  written, 
and  who  were  intimately  acquainted  with  the  bi- 
ography of  the  writer.  His  stoning,  his  shipwrecks, 
his  weariness  and  painfulness,  his  hunger  and  thirst, 
his  watchings,  fastings  and  nakedness,  his  perils  of 
water  and  of  cold,  of  robbers,  of  his  own  country- 
men, of  false  brethren,  and  of  the  heathen,  of  the 
city  and  of  the  wilderness,  we  pass  over  without 
special  comment ;  for  they  did  not  necessarily  im- 
ply disgrace.  But  the  champion  of  the  cross  was 
thrice  beaten  with  rods ;  five  times  received  he 
forty  lashes  save  one.  These  inflictions  left  stains 
more  corroding  than  their  wounds :  they  have 
immemorially  been  assigned  as  the  ignominious 
punishments  of  the  basest  crimes.  The  unregene- 
rate  brave  have  sometimes  sought 

"  The  bubble  reputation  even  in  the  cannon's  mouth." 

But  nothing  save  the  heroism  of  the  Gospel  ever 
voluntarily  and  repeatedly  encountered  the  felon's 
stripes. 

Forgiveness  of  injuries  is  another  constituent  of 
evangelical  morals.  It  is  a  duty  urged  in  the  Gos- 
pel with  peculiar  emphasis.     "If  ye  forgive  men 


120  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

their  trespasses,  your  heavenly  Father  will  also 
forgive  you;  but  if  you  forgive  not  men  their 
trespasses,  neither  will  your  Father  forgive  your 
trespasses."*  "  And  his  Lord  was  wroth,  and  de- 
livered him  to  the  tormentors  till  he  should  pay 
all  that  was  due  unto  him ;  so  likewise  shall  my 
heavenly  Father  do  also  unto  you,  if  ye  from  your 
hearts  forgive  not  every  one  his  brother  their  tres- 
passes."t  In  the  form  of  prayer  taught  by  our 
Lord,  we  are  commanded  to  say,  "And  forgive  us 
our  debts  as  we  forgive  our  debtors."  Thus  our  peti- 
tion to  God  for  the  forgiveness  of  ourselves  is  based 
on  the  express  condition  that  we  forgive  our  ene- 
mies. How  can  this  daily  prayer  be  uttered  with- 
out palsying  the  tongue  of  the  supplicant,  if  his 
own  heart  remains  unforgiving  and  relentless  ?  In 
this  prayer  of  prayers,  Christ  assimilated  the  human 
forgiveness  of  injuries  to  the  divine  forgiveness  of 
the  sins  of  the  world.  The  one  is,  indeed,  a  drop, 
the  othei*  a  shoreless  ocean  of  grace!  But  the 
drop  and  the  ocean  are  kindred  in  nature,  though 
differing  infinitely  in  degree.  Man  becomes  god- 
like when  he  imitates  the  pardoning  attribute  of 
God.    But  what  sage  of  polytheism  ever  discovered 

*  Matthew  vi  14, 15.  f  Matthew  xviiL  34,  35. 


THE    MORALITY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  121 

and  proclaimed  the  elemental  principle  of  universal 
ethics,  binding  from  the  creation  of  humankind, 
and  requiring  man  to  forgive  from  his  heart  his 
offending  fellows,  not  until  seven  times  only,  "  but 
until  seventy  times  seven?" 

Universal  beneficence  is  a  vital  element  of  Gos- 
pel morals.  Jesus  Christ  represents  the  exercise 
of  this  virtue  as  the  severing  test  between  the 
righteous  and  the  wicked,  in  the  great  and  terrible 
day  of  final  retribution.  "  Then  shall  the  King  say 
unto  them  on  his  right  hand,  Come  ye  blessed  of 
my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world;  for  I  was  an 
hungered  and  ye  gave  me  meat ;  I  was  thirsty  and 
ye  gave  me  drink ;  I  was  a  stranger  and  ye  took 
me  in ;  naked  and  ye  clothed  me ;  I  was  sick  and 
ye  visited  me  ;  I  was  in  prison  and  ye  came  unto 
me.  Then  shall  the  righteous  answer  him,  saying, 
Lord,  when  saw  we  thee  an  hungered  and  fed 
thee?  or  thirsty  and  gave  thee  drin^J^'  When 
saw  we  thee  a  stranger  and  took  thee  in  ?  or  naked 
and  clothed  thee?  or  when  saw  we  thee  sick, 
or  in  prison,  and  came  unto  thee?  And  the 
King  shall  answer  and  say  unto  them.  Verily  I 
say   unto    you,    inasmuch    as    ye    have    done    it 

unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have 
6 


122  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

done  it  unto  me."*  In  this  passage,  so  tran- 
scendant  for  simplicity,  pathos  and  awful  grandeur, 
our  blessed  Saviour  singled  out  beneficence  as  the 
passport  to  everlasting  bliss,  not  because  it  is  the 
only  virtue  in  the  evangejical  code,  but  because  its 
habitual  exercise  is  the  sure  token  of  the  presence 
of  all  its  sister  graces. 

The  duty  of  christian  beneficence  is  not  con- 
fined to  alms-giving.  "Like  the  gentle  rain  of 
heaven,"  its  genial  influences  pervade  the  universal 
soil,  parched  and  illimitable,  of  human  wants.  It 
has  given  eyes  to  the  blind,  and  ears  to  the  deaf, 
and  a  tongue  to  the  dumb ;  created  hospitals  for 
the  sick,  and  cast  its  maternal  mantle  over  the  de- 
mented. It  has  poured  its  illuminating  rays  upon 
the  benighted  mind ;  erected  schools  for  the  juve- 
nile poor,  and  thrown  open  its  colleges  for  the  free 
Ij^  instruction  of  generous  aspirants  after  knowledge 
in  the  higher  grades. 

But  it  is  in  the  relief  of  spiritual  maladies  that 
the  energy  of  christian  beneficence  has  been  most 
strikingly  displayed.  For  the  salvation  of  souls 
what  toils,  what  hardships,  what  "  most  disastrous 
chances"  has  it  not  joyously  encountered  ?     After 

♦  Matthew  xxv.  34-41. 


THE    MORALITY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  123 

the  first  few  centuries  of  Christianity  had  elapsed, 
its  progress  in  the  heaHng  of  the  nations  became, 
indeed,  for  a  long  while  slow  and  hesitating.  But 
on  these  latter  times  a  glorious  light  is  dawning. 
Princes  have  become  "nursing  fathers"  to  evan- 
gelizing beneficence.  Commerce,  its  faithful  hand- 
maiden, is  whitening  all  the  seas  ;  wonder-working 
steam  lends  it  all  her  potency ;  and  the  lightning 
of  heaven  has  promised  it  her  wings. 

Beneficence  was  a  stranger  to  polytheism. 
Classic  antiquity  had  no  schools  for  the  poor ;  no 
hospitals  for  the  diseased ;  no  Howard  for  the 
prison-houses.  She  left  to  heartless  avarice,  steeled 
even  against  parental  and  filial  ties,  the  lives  of  her 
helpless  infants  and  aged.  Her  favorite  recreations 
were  gladiatorial  murders.  If  she  visited  distant 
climes,  it  was  to  slaughter  the  doomed  inhabitants, 
or  make  them  slaves.  With  the  mighty  hope  of 
renovating  a  fallen  race  her  bosom  never  glowed. 

The  Gospel  commands  us  to  ^overcome  the 
world.  The  conquest  enjoined  is  not  like  that  to 
which  Napoleon  aspired,  and  which  the  son  of 
Philip  achieved.  The  world  to  be  conquered  is  the 
little  world  within  ourselves.  Such  victory  is  more 
illustrious  than  was  ever  accomplished  by  "gar- 
ments rolled  in  blood."     "  He  that  ruleth  his  spirit 


124  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

is  better  than  he  that  taketh  a  city."*  It  was  an 
adage  of  lettered  antiquity,  that  a  good  man  strug- 
gling with  adverse  fortune,  was  a  spectacle  recrea- 
ting even  to  the  gods.  But  man's  most  glorious 
achievement  is  the  mastery  of  himself.  He  who 
by  divine  grace  can  successfully  say  to  the  stormy 
passions  of  his  own  soul,  "  Hitherto  shalt  thou  come, 
but  no  further ;  and  here  shall  thy  proud  waves  be 
stayed,"-|-  is  an  object  upon  whom,  not  the  false  gods 
of  polytheism,  but  the  Jehovah  of  the  Bible,  can 
look  down  with  complacency. 

Such  conquest  of  self  is  an  indispensable  prelim- 
inary to  the  favor  of  heaven.  The  unholy  desires 
of  the  miniature  world  within  us  must  be  reclaimed, 
its  lusts  exterminated,  its  strong  citadel  of  selfish- 
ness razed  to  the  ground,  or  we  cannot  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God.  Unprejudiced  reason,  with 
the  Gospel  shining  around  her,  must  perceive  the 
necessity  of  moral  renovation  here  as  a  preparative 
for  bliss  hereafter.  For  how  could  impenitent  sin 
commingle  through  endless  ages  with  immaculate 
holiness  ?  Such  moral  renovation  was  a  stranger 
even  to  the  dreams  of  heathen  antiquity.  Her 
ferocious  warriors  she  sent  to  elysium  red  from  the 

*  Proverbs  xvL  82.  f  Job  xxxviil  11. 


THE    MORALITY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  125 

fields  of  their  wanton  and  murderous  slaughter; 
her  profligate  kings  and  emperors  she  transformed 
to  deities  when  earth  could  no  longer  endure  the 
burden  of  their  presence. 

The  sanctions  of  the  christian  code  bear  evident 
marks  of  heavenly  lineage.  By  the  sanctions  of  a 
law  are  meant  its  rewards  for  obedience,  and  its 
penalties  for  transgression  ;  the  former  called  remu- 
neratory,  the  latter  vindicatory.  An  edict  without 
sanctions  is  but  naked  advice;  its  obedience  or 
disobedience  depending  on  the  vohtion  of  those  to 
whom  it  is  addressed.  Human  sanctions  rely  for 
their  efficiency  upon  extraneous  proofs ;  without 
the  aid  of  auxiliary  evidence,  they  must  remain 
utterly  powerless,  especially  in  the  vindicatory, 
which  is  their  principal  department.  In  a  land 
filled  with  all  the  complicated  machinery  of  courts 
and  of  prisons,  transgression  may  walk  in  triumph, 
if,  by  the  stealthiness  of  its  steps  or  the  adroitness 
of  its  disguises,  it  can  lull  the  inattentive  ear  and 
beguile  the  unsuspicious  eye.  Even  where  the 
evidence  of  guilt  is  clear,  municipal  sanctions  are 
often  eluded  by  flight,  and  sometimes  resisted  by 
force.  They  penetrate  not  the  secret  chambers  of 
guilt ;  the  hidden  springs  of  crime  are  beyond  their 
grasp ;  they  enter  not  the  deep  and  dark  laborato- 


126      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

ries  of  the  heart ;  they  reach  not  beyond  the  brief 
span  of  mortal  Ufe. 

The  sanctions  of  the  evangehcal  code  pervade 
the  innermost  "  thoughts  and  intents."  None  can 
resist  them  by  force,  or  avoid  them  by  flight,  or 
elude  them  by  craft.  They  invoke  the  hopes  and 
the  terrors  of  eternity.  They  require  the  aid  of 
no  extraneous  proofs.  The  omniscient  eye,  doth  it 
not  see  ?  The  omnipresent  ear,  doth  it  not  hear  ? 
The  omnipotent  arm,  v^^ho  can  w^ithstand?  The 
Book  of  God's  Remembrance,  w^ho  w^ill  gainsay  ? 
That  dread  Volume  records  even  the  most  secret 
aspirations  of  unembodied  guilt;  and  there  are 
registered  each  vv^idow's  mite  cast  into  the  treasury 
of  benevolence,  and  every  cup  of  cold  water  given 
to  any  of  Christ's  little  ones  in  the  name  of  a  dis- 
ciple. 

The  Judgment  of  the  Great  Day  is  the  most  aw- 
ful conception  that  ever  dilated  the  human  mind. 
How  puerile,  how  despicable,  were  the  tribunals  of 
heathen  gods,  erected  by  classic  polytheism  for  the 
sentence  of  departed  spirits !  Yet  were  they  decked 
with  all  "  the  pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance"  which 
the  uninspired  imagination  could  conceive.  The 
Judgment  Scene  of  the  Gospel  is  an  original  delin- 
eation  achieved  by  no   mortal  pencil.     Without 


.THE    MORALITY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  127 

divine  teachings,  it  was  impossible  that  in  repre- 
senting the  award  of  final  retributions  to  human 
kind,  the  unlettered  fishermen  of  Galilee  should  so 
immeasurably  have  transcended,  in  simplicity,  in 
pathos,  in  unearthly  grandeur,  all  the  imaginings 
of  Homer,  of  Plato,  and  of  Virgil.  The  combined 
skill  of  ages  has  been  exercised  to  surround  terres- 
trial courts  with  whatever  can  excite  respect,  ven- 
eration, or  awe.  Yet  how  do  the  courts  of  earth 
sink  into  nothingness  compared  with  the  Grand 
Assize  of  the  Son  of  God,  when  he  shall  come  to 
judgment  on  his  throne  of  clouds,  with  the  hosts  of 
heaven  in  his  train,  preceded  by  the  archangel's 
trump,  and  met  by  the  thronging  dead !  Without 
teachings  from  above,  the  peasants  of  Judea  could 
have  delineated  the  scriptural  picture  of  the  final 
advent  of  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,  no  more  than 
they  could  "  thunder  with  a  voice  like  Him."* 

*  Job  xL  9. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE   CHABACTEB,   OF   JESUS   OHEIST. 


Difficulty  of  delineating  character — Especially  that  of  perfect  man 
— Delineation  of  perfect  man  reserved  for  fishermen  of  Galilee — 
They  had  no  model — Difficulty  enchanced  by  the  fact  that  the 
Christ  of  the  Gospel  enshrined  the  second  person  of  the  Trinity — 
Infidelity  gains  nothing  by  supposing  that  Christ  was  the  deceiver 
and  his  biographers  the  dupes — Enacting  perfect  character  more 
difficult  than  even  dehneation  of  one — His  blended  meekness,  low- 
liness, and  majesty — ^His  humiliation  surpassed  what  mere  man 
would  have  voluntarily  endured  or  conceived — His  piety — His 
benignity — His  beneficence — Cases  of  Bartimeus — The  sinful 
woman  who  anointed  his  feet — The  prodigal  son — His  restoring 
La^iarus  to  life — His  weeping  over  Jerusalem. 

The  power  of  delineating  character  with  truth 
and  vividness,  is  one  of  the  rarest  attributes  of  ge- 
nius. To  this  attribute  the  great  historians  of  an- 
cient and  modern  times  are  indebted  for  their  fame. 
It  is  this  almost  peerless  attribute  which  has  clothed 
with  immortality  the  few  imaginative  writers  who 
have  triumphed  over  the  ravages  of  time.  To 
create  a  hero  and  sustain  his  consistency  in  all  the 
varied  relations  of  life,  requires  a  discrimination  of 
intellect,  an  accuracy  of  judgment,  and  a  plastic 
power  of  fancy,  seldom  vouchsafed  to  mortals. 
And  of  all  fictitious  characters  of  earthly  mould, 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.      129 

the  most  difficult  to  draw  would  doubtless  be  that 
of  a  perfect  man.  In  the  light  and  shades  of  a 
mixed  character,  compounded  of  good  and  evil,  slight 
inaccuracies  might  escape  detection.  But  in  the 
pure  white  of  the  portraiture  of  a  perfect  man,  the 
slightest  blemish  must  be  palpable  to  sight.  The 
successful  delineation  of  personified  perfection  in 
the  multifarious  vicissitudes  of  life,  is  a  consumma- 
tion to  which  the  uninpsired  imagination  could  not 
attain.  And  profane  history  has  not,  in  her  ample 
confines,  a  single  original  of  immaculate  excellence 
to  portray. 

The  biography  of  a  perfect  man  was  reserved 
for  the  unlettered  peasants  of  Judea.  They  had 
no  model  of  terrestrial  lineage  to  imitate.  Sin  had 
blotted  out  Eden.  Ideal  perfection  was  a  phantom 
varying  with  climes  and  epochs  ;  one  thing  at  clas- 
sic Athens,  another  at  iron-bound  Sparta,  and  yet 
another  in  majestic  Rome.  The  evangelists,  un- 
less they  drew  from  life,  had  nothing  to  guide  them 
but  the  ignis  fatuus  of  their  own  wild  imagina- 
tions. Yet  of  their  perfect  man  they  were  to  form, 
not  merely  one  moral  picture  representing  him  at 
a  single  point  of  his  being,  but  a  series  of  original 
drawings  delineating  his  whole  diversified  progress 

from  the  cradle  to  the  tomb.     And  they  were  to 
6* 


130      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

draw,  not  for  Palestine  alone,  but  for  the  world ; 
not  for  their  own  age  only,  but  for  all  the  succeed- 
ing centuries  of  time. 

The  evangeUcal  historians  essayed  a  still  bolder 
flight.  They  affirmed  that  their  perfect  man  en- 
shrined the  second  person  of  the  Trinity  ;  that  the 
Christ  of  the  Gospel  was  the  Word  made  flesh ;  the 
son  of  Mary,  and  at  the  same  time  the  uncreated  Son 
of  the  Highest;  born  in  a  manger,  and  yet  inhabit- 
ing the  earliest  eternity ;  a  carpenter  on  earth,  and 
yet  the  Framer  of  the  heavens.  The  illiterate 
peasants  of  Judea  assumed  the  biography  of  Je- 
hovah clothed  in  humanity.  If  the  Gospel  is  an 
imposture,  its  authors  must  have  originated  the  un- 
earthly conception  of  the  incarnation  of  Him  who 
"  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God.*' 
And  this  conception  so  much  above  the  sphere  of 
mortal  intellect,  was  but  the  prelude  to  the  mightier 
task  which  lay  before  them.  They  had  to  conduct 
from  the  manger  to  the  cross  the  complex  Being  of 
their  conception,  and  to  make  him  speak  and  act 
and  suffer,  and  die,  as  became  an  incarnate  Deity. 
He  was  not  to  be  represented  as  "  the  high  and 
lofty  One,"  throned  in  heaven ;  but  as  manifesting 
himself  to  the  children  of  humanity  as  the  infinite 
Word  never  manifested  himself  to  his   creatures 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.      131 

until  he  became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  them.  The 
thoughts  and  emotions,  the  language  and  deeds,  of 
their  original  and  unique  Personage,  were  to  be  as 
original  and  unique  as  the  constitution  of  his  mys- 
terious being.  In  all  the  varieties  of  his  life  he  was 
to  blend  harmoniously  the  almightiness  and  majesty 
of  a  God  with  the  feebleness  and  humility  of  a  man. 
The  consistency  of  this  awful  Being  was  to  be 
maintained  with  an  untiring  eye  and  unfaltering 
hand,  in  his  birth,  in  the  expansion  of  his  youth,  in 
the  maturity  of  his  manhood,  in  his  arrest,  trial  and 
crucifixion.  Such  a  picture,  blending  godhead  and 
manhood,  earth  and  heaven,  with  perfect  distinct- 
ness and  concord,  could  have  been  drawn  only  by 
the  pencil  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  picture  has 
been  hung  on  high  for  the  world  to  gaze  at.  It  has 
riveted  the  profound  criticism  of  eighteen  centu- 
ries. No  blemish  in  it  has  been  found.  And  yet 
in  such  a  picture,  a  blemish  would  be  as  palpable 
as  a  spot  on  the  luminary  of  day. 

No  uninspired  effort  could  have  achieved  the 
scriptural  delineation  of  Jesus  Christ.  Mortal  pen- 
cil cannot  paint  a  God.  That  the  delineation  has 
so  long  commanded  reason's  profoundest  homage  is 
no  proof  that  it  was  the  workmanship  of  reason. 
The  human  mind  may  appro ve^and  admire  what  it 


132      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

could  never  have  originated.  It  could  not  have 
contrived  the  plan  of  the  solar  system ;  yet  it  may 
contemplate  w^ith  v^onder  and  complacency  its 
beauty,  its  magnificence,  its  divine  architecture, 
when  revealed  by  the  power  of  the  telescope. 

Infidelity  can  gain  nothing  by  supposing  that 
Jesus  Christ  was  himself  the  impostor,  and  that  his 
biographers  were  but  the  credulous  dupes  of  decep- 
tion. Such  a  supposition  would  be  placing  unbelief 
on  the  more  hopeless  horn  of  a  desperate  dilemma. 
If  the  united  efforts  of  his  biographers  could  not 
I  have  conceived  the  character  imputed  to  him  in  the 
I  Sacred  Volume,  how  could  he  himself)  if  human 
lonly,  have  conceived  it  ?  If  their  uninspired  hu- 
manity must  needs  have  failed  in  delineating  such 
a  character,  how  could  his  humanity  have  enacted 
it  in  his  own  person  without  the  aid  of  indwelhng 
divinity  ?  Upon  the  supposition  that  he  was  but  a 
man,  it  is  most  unlikely  that  he  should  have  im- 
agined the  character  with  which  the  Gospel  invests 
him;  and  if  he  had  imagined  the  character,  it  is  im- 
possible that  he  could  have  bodied  it  forth  in  consist- 
ent and  harmonious  action.  To  perform  is  more 
difficult  than  to  conceive  or  to  express.  That  with- 
out indwelling  divinity,  mortal  man  could  have  spo- 
ken the  words,  and  done  the  deeds,  and  lived  the  life, 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST.  133 

and  died  the  death,  predicated  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  a 
theory  involving  a  more  stupendous  miracle  than 
any  recorded  in  the  Gospel. 

The  incarnate  God  was  "meek  and  lowly  in 
heart."  He  was  born  in  a  manger,  and  wrapped  in 
its  straw.  He  toiled  for  years  in  the  workshop  of 
Joseph.  Worse  accommodated  in  his  own  world 
than  the  birds  of  the  air  or  the  foxes  of  the  field, 
the  Proprietor  of  the  universe  had  not  where  to  lay 
his  head.  At  his  last  interview  with  the  chosen 
twelve,  the  Lord  of  glory  rose  from  supper,  and  took 
a  towel  and  girded  himself,  and  washed  the  feet  of 
his  betraying  and  deserting  disciples.  Though 
clothed  in  the  mantle  of  omnipotence,  he  suffered 
himself  to  be  arrested,  reviled,  buffeted,  scourged, 
spitted  on  in  the  face,  crucified  between  two 
thieves !  ^ 

Such  meekness  and  lowliness  were  not  creations 
of  fancy.  They  pertain  not  to  proud  man  even  in 
thought.  The  carnal  heart  would  deem  them  be- 
low the  dignity  of  human  nature.  No  writer  of 
romance  would  have  ventured  to  subject  his  chief 
character  to  the  degradations  voluntarily  borne  by 
jJesus  Christ.  Not  the  genius  of  Homer,  or  Virgil, 
of  Dante,  Boccacio,  or  Scott,  could  have  saved 
from  contempt  and  oblivion  a  work  of  fiction  rep- 


134      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

resenting  its  hero  as  the  tame  and  wilHng  recipient 
of  scofRngs,  and  scourgings,  and  spittings.  But  the 
Hero  of  the  Gospel  was  a  God!  His  voluntary 
degradation  was  too  profound  for  humanity  to  have 
endured — for  humanity  to  have  conceived. 

The  incarnation  of  the  second  person  of  the 
Trinity,  is  the  absorbing  marvel  in  the  story  of 
redeeming  love.  If  faith  but  firmly  grasps  that 
wonder  of  wonders,  it  may  contemplate  with  less 
amazement  the  subsequent  miracles  of  his  humilia- 
tion. The  privations,  insults  and  sufferings  which 
he  so  meekly  bore  from  his  lowly  birth  to  his  ex- 
piring cry,  were  but  subsidiary  to  the  stupendous 
object  of  his  becoming  flesh.  It  might  be  expected 
of  Him  who  had  divested  himself  of  "  the  form  of 
God"  for  "  the  form  of  a  servant,"  that  his  humilia- 
tion, infini^L  in  its  commencement,  should  have 
continued  iminite  in  all  its  after  demonstrations. 
In  keeping  with  his  incarnation  were  the  swaddling 
clothes  of  the  manger,  the  robes  of  mockery,  the 
crown  of  thorns,  the  crucifixion  between  malefac- 
tors. With  the  incarnation  in  full  view,  it  seems 
not  incredible  to  the  awe-stricken  imagination, 
that  the  God  made  flesh  should  have  suffered  asj 
man  never  suffered,  and  should  have  humbled  him- 
self as  man  was  never  voluntarily  humbled. 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST.  135 

Yet  with  all  the  meekness  and  lowliness  of  the 
incarnate  God  were  harmoniously  intermingled 
traits  of  majesty  and  of  glory,  which  the  uninspired 
child  of  humanity  could  no  more  have  delineated 
than  he  could  have  painted  to  the  life  the  arch  of 
heaven.  In  all  the  scriptural  canvass  the  de- 
scended Deity  stands  pre-eminently  forth,  veiled 
but  not  wholly  concealed  by  his  covering  of  flesh. 
His  words  and  his  deeds  sustained  his  claim  to 
oneness  with  the  Father,  and  his  assumption  of  the 
incommunicable  name  of  the  Old  Testament,  I 
AM.  His  unearthly  teachings  bear  on  their  fore- 
head the  awful  impress  of  the  Godhead.  Well 
might  the  multitudes  have  exclaimed,  that  "he 
taught  them  as  one  having  authority,  and  not  as 
the  scribes."  It  was  not  the  lore  of  earth,  but  the 
wisdom  of  heaven,  that  flowed  from  his  lips.  He 
wrought  his  daily  miracles  by  the  same  unbor- 
rowed potency  that  said  in  the  beginning,  "  Let 
there  be  light,  and  there  was  light."  Of  the  celes- 
tial courts,  he  spoke  with  the  familiar  knowledge 
that  a  princely  sojourner  in  a  foreign  clime  might 
display  in  speaking  of  his  paternal  halls.  His  thrill- 
ing descriptions  of  the  Final  Judgment,  surpassing 
in  sublimity  anything  ever  conceived  by  man, 
drew  from  him  no  elaboration  of  speech  or  pomp 


136      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

of  diction ;  for  that  great  event,  in  all  its  magnifi- 
cence, is  to  be  a  simple  exertion  of  his  wonted  al- 
mightiness. 

The  originality  and  perfection  of  Christ's  char- 
acter will  better  appear  from  a  review  of  some  of 
its  component  elements.  Our  review  must  neces- 
sarily be  brief  The  glowing  theme  might  well  be 
expanded  into  a  volume. 

His  piety  was  original,  unique,  perfect,  godlike. 
It  was  not  wont  to  display  itself  in  ebullitions  of 
rapture.  The  Saviour  of  the  world  was  no  fanat- 
ic ;  deep,  calm,  wise,  and  practical  was  his  devo- 
tion. Though  the  live-long  night  often  witnessed 
on  the  cold  mountain-top  his  solitary  prayers,  yet 
the  return  of  morning  ever  found  him  restored  to 
the  busy  haunts  of  life.  He  affected  no  austerities, 
no  peculiarity  of  dress,  language  or  manners ;  his 
example  afforded  no  model  for  ascetic  mortifica- 
tions. His  was  the  bland  and  cheerful  holiness  of 
God's  right  hand,  condescending  to  dwell  awhile 
on  earth,  full  of  grace  and  love.  He  mingled  in 
familiar  intercourse  with  the  children  of  humanity. 
He  came  "  eating  and  drinking ;"  he  mixed  in 
scenes  of  innocent  conviviahty;  he  sat  down  at 
meat  with  publicans  and  sinners.  He  sought  no 
solitudes  to  dwell  in ;  he  rejoiced  "  in  the  habitable 


#  ■«' 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 


part  of  his  earth,"  and  his  "  delights  were  with  the 
sons  of  men."* 

The  benignity  of  Jesus  Christ  was  a  distinguish- 
ing constituent  of  his  character.  We  here  allude, 
not  so  much  to  the  infinitude  of  his  compassion 
demonstrated  in  his  incarnation  and  vicarious  suf- 
ferings, as  to  those  lesser  graces,  never  to  have 
been  conceived  by  the  human  mind,  which  marked 
his  whole  philanthropic  life.  An  atmosphere  of 
holy  love  breathed  constantly  from  his  presence, 
as  the  rays  of  light  emanate  from  the  orb  of  day. 
In  his  early  ministry,  when  first  appearing  as  a 
public  teacher  where  he  had  been  brought  up,  he 
went  into  the  synagogue  on  the  sabbath  day,  and 
the  book  of  the  prophet  Esaias  being  delivered  to 
him,  he  read  therefrom ;  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed  me  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  the  poor ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  heal 
the  broken-hearted;  to  preach  deliverance  to  the 
captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind ;  to  set 
at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised ;  to  preach  the  ac- 
ceptable year  of  the  Lord."  No  wonder  that,  as 
he  closed  the  book,  and  gave  it  again  to  the  minis- 
ter, and  sat  down,  "  the  eyes  of  all  them  that  were 

*  Proverbs  viii.  31. 


138  THIS    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

in  the  synagogue  were  fastened  on  him."  How 
gracious  had  been  his  words  !  How  benignant  his 
looks !  How  vast  the  contrast  between  the  quiet 
laborer  in  the  workshop,  and  the  glowing  teacher  in 
the  church  of  Nazareth ! 

As  the  incarnate  God  went  out  from  Jericho, 
blind  Bartimeus  sat  by  the  way-side  begging,  and 
cried,  "  Jesus,  thou  son  of  David,  have  mercy  on 
me."  The  multitude  sternly  rebuked  what  they 
deemed  the  obtrusive  importunity.  An  earthly 
prince  might  have  passed  on  in  careless  or  disdain- 
ful silence.  But  the  Son  of  Mary  was  the  personi- 
fication of  that  mercy  w^hich  "  dwelleth  between 
the  cherubims."  Never  did  a  whisper  of  sincere 
prayer  escape  the  ear  of  Him  "who  hears  the 
young  ravens  when  they  cry."  He  stood  still;  he 
commanded  that  the  sightless  beggar  should  be 
called.  Thus  summoned,  the  humble  suppliant  re- 
newed his  importunate  petition,  "  Lord,  that  I 
might  receive  my  sight !"  "  And  Jesus  said  unto 
him,  go  thy  way ;  thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole." 
And  the  blind,  restored  to  the  light  of  heaven,  joy- 
ously followed  in  his  Saviour's  train. 

Jesus  was  sent  "to  heal  the  broken-hearted." 
As  he  was  sitting  a  bidden  guest  at  the  table  of  the 
pharisee,  a  woman  of  the  city,  who  was  a  sinner. 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST.  139 

"  brought  an  alabaster  box  of  ointment,  and  stood 
at  his  feet  behind  him  weeping,  and  began  to  wash 
his  feet  with  tears,  and  did  wipe  them  with  the 
hairs  of  her  head,  and  kissed  his  feet  and  anointed 
them  with  ointment."  The  pharisee  cavilled  in  his 
heart  that  he,  who  assumed  to  be  a  prophet,  should 
have  permitted  himself  to  be  thus  contaminated  by 
the  touch  of  pollution.  But  Jesus  had  come  "  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost."  Perceiving 
the  secret  thoughts  of  his  host,  he  recounted  the 
pathetic  tokens  of  the  woman's  contrition,  and  then 
said  to  him  in  the  presence  of  those  who  sat  at 
meat,  "  Wherefore  I  say  unto  thee  that  her  sins, 
which  are  many,  are  forgiven ;  for  she  loved  much." 
And  instead  of  reminding  the  guilt-stained  and 
spirit-broken  penitent  of  her  past  offences,  he  dis- 
missed her  by  kindly  saying,  "  Thy  faith  hath  saved 
thee,  go  in  peace."  How  exhaustless  is  the  foun- 
tain of  redeeming  love  !  How  exquisitely  touching 
this  heaven-drawn  portraiture  of  pardoning  grace ! 
The  Gospel  was  wont  to  elucidate  and  impress 
its  doctrines  and  precepts  by  images  borrowed 
from  nature  and  from  life.  It  thus  brought  home 
its  great  truths  to  "  the  business  and  bosoms"  of 
men,  with  a  familiarity  and  power  to  which  classic 
learning  was  a  stranger.     Almost  at  the  head  of 


140      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

this  species  of  sacred  teachings  stands  the  wonder- 
ful parable  of  the  prodigal  son.  The  seemingly- 
hopeless  reprobate  shadowed  forth  the  gentile  sin- 
ner ;  Jesus  himself  was  the  impersonation  of  the 
forgiving  father.  Overwhelmed  by  complicated 
miseries,  and  pressed  by  the  iron  hand  of  famine, 
the  long  lost  son  at  length  came  to  himself,  and 
penitently  sought  the  place  of  an  hired  servant  in 
his  native  halls.  The  keen  eye  of  ineffable  affec- 
tion recognized  him  "  a  great  way  off,"  disguised 
as  he  was  by  tattered  rags  and  the  deep  impress 
of  sin,  want  and  shame ;  the  yearning  parent  "  had 
compassion,  and  ran  and  fell  on  his  neck  and  kissed 
him."  The  fattened  calf  was  killed  ;  the  best  robe 
was  brought  forth  ;  shoes  were  put  upon  his  naked 
feet ;  the  ring  of  love  was  placed  upon  his  emaciated 
finger ;  and  the  home  of  his  boyhood  was  made  to 
welcome  his  return  with  gladsome  sounds  of  music 
and  festivity.  Such  is  the  never-failing  mercy  of 
the  redeeming  God !  Such  his  patient  waiting  for 
the  prodigal's  return!  Such  his  "joy  over  one 
sinner  that  repenteth." 

Jesus  "  went  about  doing  good."  Lazarus  was 
dead ;  he  and  his  pious  sisters  had  been  beloved  by 
the  incarnate  Deity.  The  great  Physician  drew 
near  to  the  house  of  mourning ;  the  bereaved  or- 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST.  141 

phans  came  out  to  meet  him,  attended  by  their 
sympathizing  friends.  The  faithful  Mary  fell  down 
at  his  feet ;  her  companions  joined  in  the  general 
wail;  the  compassionate  God  "groaned  in  spirit 
and  was  troubled."  He  was  conducted  to  the 
homely  grave ;  the  putrescent  body  had  been  four 
days  dead.  "  Jesus  wept."  Even  the  Jews  ex- 
claimed, "  Behold  how  he  loved  him."  He  lifted  up 
his  mandatory  voice,  so  bland,  yet  so  potent ;  death 
released  its  grasp ;  decay  bloomed  into  health ; 
Lazarus  came  forth;  and  for  his  loosened  grave- 
clothes  were  substituted  the  folding  arms  of  sisterly 
affection.  Such  was  the  graciousness  of  the  Word 
made  flesh !  Yet  was  the  resuscitation  at  the  cave 
of  Bethany  but  a  faint  emblem  of  the  blood-bought 
renovation  of  a  world  "  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins." 

Jesus  approached  Jerusalem  to  suffer  and  to  die. 
Yet  the  anticipated  pangs  of  Gethsemane  and  of 
Calvary  were  absorbed  for  awhile  in  his  piteous 
moans  over  the  city  of  his  executioners.  When  as 
he  descended  from  the  mount  of  Olives,  he  came  in 
full  view  of  the  metropolis  so  soon  to  be  bathed  in 
his  blood,  he  wept  over  it  as  he  had  wept  over  the 
body  of  Lazarus,  "  Saying,  if  thou  hadst  known, 
even  thou,  at  least  in  this  thy  day,  the  things  which 


142      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

belong  unto  thy  peace !  but  now  they  are  hid  from 
thine  eyes."  And  in  another  of  the  evangehsts  he 
exclaimed ;  "  O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  thou  that 
killest  the  prophets  and  stonest  them  which  are  sent 
unto  thee,  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy 
children  together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her 
chickens  under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not!"  Nor 
did  the  immediate  pains  of  crucifixion  chill  the 
warm  fountain  of  his  compassion.  He  infused  a 
foretaste  of  heaven  into  the  heart  of  the  penitent 
thief  at  his  side;  amidst  his  own  agonies  he  failed 
not  to  remember  his  houseless  mother ;  and  with 
his  dying  breath  he  invoked  forgiveness  upon  those 
who  had  nailed  him  to  the  tree. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   SAME   SUBJECT   CONTINUED. 

"Wisdom  of  Jesus  Christ — His  sermon  on  the  mount — Other  cases 
of  his  tinearthly  wisdom — He  was  the  patron  and  personification 
of  holy  friendship — His  parting  interview  with  his  disciples, — His 
simpUcity — His  manner  of  teaching — His  indifference  to  human 
fame — Silence  of  Gospel  concerning  his  personal  appearance. 

The  wisdom  of  the  Son  of  God  claimed  brother- 
hood with  his  beneficence.  We  here  refer,  not  so 
much  to  the  divine  wisdom  displayed  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  atonement,  as  to  those  hourly  demon- 
strations of  supernatural  intelligence  which  marked 
the  whole  terrestrial  pilgrimage  of  the  God  wrapped 
in  the  mantle  of  humanity.  Jesus  Christ  was  with- 
out human  instruction,  and  so  were  his  biographers ; 
they  were  the  unlettered  natives  of  a  land  deemed 
unlettered  by  the  pride  of  classic  antiquity.  They 
could  not,  if  they  would,  have  fabricated  the  dis- 
plays of  godlike  knowledge  constantly  exhibited  by 
Him  who  spoke  as  mortal  never  spoke.  "  How 
knoweth  this  man  letters,  having  never  learned  ?" 
was  the  irrepressible  exclamation  of  the  listening 


144      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

and  astonished  Jews.  The  interrogatory  has  been 
reiterated  by  every  student  of  the  Gospel  for  eigh- 
teen centuries.  The  intelUgence  of  Mary's  son,  if 
not  divine,  was  miraculous.  It  was  not  the  en- 
dowment of  uninspired  humanity. 

Contemplate  the  sermon  of  Christ  upon  the 
mount.  Had  the  Bramins  of  India,  the  Chinese 
Confucius,  the  Persian  Zoroaster,  and  all  the 
learned  sages  of  Greece,  been  convened  in  solemn 
conclave  to  digest  a  code  of  ethics  and  of  theism, 
their  united  labors  could  not  have  approached 
nearer  than  earth  approaches  heaven  to  that  com- 
pendium of  the  wise,  the  profound,  the  sublime, 
delivered  by  Jesus  the  carpenter,  and  recorded  by 
Matthew  the  publican.  What  simpleness,  what 
perspicuity  of  diction!  What  depth,  what  gran- 
deur of  thought !  What  comprehensiveness  of 
doctrine!  What  pureness  of  morals!  What  de- 
velopments of  the  human  heart !  What  unfoldings 
of  Jehovah's  character !  The  place  was  suited  to 
the  august  occasion.  No  earthly  synagogue  would 
have  held  the  thronging  multitudes.  It  was  a  lofty 
and  spacious  temple,  "  not  made  with  hands,"  hav- 
ing for  its  base  the  mountain-top,  and  for  its  roof 
the  skies  that  the  divine  Speaker  chose  as  the  the- 
atre for  his  grand  display  of  that  Wisdom  which, 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.      145 

"  when  he  prepared  the  heavens,"  "  was  by  him  as 
one  brought  up  with  him."* 

It  was  no  mortal  sage  who  tested  in  the  balances 
of  the  sanctuary  the  widow's  mite,  and  pro- 
nounced it  heavier  than  all  the  oblations  of  the 
rich.  That  wisdom  was  not  of  this  world,  which, 
drawing  aside  the  curtain  of  eternity,  propounded 
to  thoughtless  mortals  the  tremendous  interroga- 
tory, "  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  shall  gain 
the  whole  world,  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?"  When 
vain  curiosity  had  inquired  of  him,  "  Lord,  are 
there  few  that  be  saved  ?"  the  sagacity  was  more 
than  human  which  dictated  the  silencing  response, 
"  Strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate  :  for  many,  I 
say  unto  you,  will  seek  to  enter  in  and  shall  not 
be  able."  It  was  not  within  the  scope  of  human 
rhetoric  to  have  portrayed,  as  He  of  Nazareth  por- 
trayed, the  spiritual  pride  of  the  pharisee  and  the 
broken-hearted  humility  of  the  publican,  when  they 
"  went  up  into  the  temple  to  pray."  The  delinea- 
tion of  personified  benevolence  in  the  parable  of 
the  good  Samaritan,  bears  decisive  marks  of  that 
inimitable  pencil  which  painted  '•'  the  green  of  the 
earth  and  the  blue  of  the  heavens." 


*  Proverbs  viii.  21,  80. 

7 


146  THE   GOSPEL    ITS    OWN   ADVOCATE. 

The  Jewish  hierarchy  pressed  onward,  and  in- 
structed by  demoniac  cunning,  often  sought  to  en- 
trap our  Saviour  in  his  speech.  With  this  view 
they  brought  to  him  a  woman  taken  in  adultery ; 
and  after  reminding  him  of  the  Mosaic  ordinance, 
which  required  that  such  should  be  stoned,  they 
temptingly  asked  him,  "  But  what  sayest  thou  ?" — 
thinking  either  to  bring  him  into  collision  with  the 
ancient  laws  of  the  nation,  or  else  to  expose  the 
friend  of  sinners  to  the  imputation  of  unfeeling 
severity.  He,  perceiving  their  guile,  "stooped 
down,  and  with  his  finger  wrote  on  the  ground,  as 
though  he  heard  them  not."  But  as  they  con- 
tinued to  press  the  inquiry,  "  he  Hfted  himself  up 
and  said  unto  them,  he  that  is  without  sin  among 
you,  let  him  first  cast  a  stone  at  her.  And  again 
he  stooped  down  and  wrote  on  the  ground."  They 
felt  the  rebuke  of  the  Omniscient ;  and  one  by  one 
they  all  went  out,  leaving  "  the  woman  standing  in 
the  midst."  Resuming  his  erect  position,  he  said 
to  her,  "  Woman,  where  are  those  thine  accusers  ? 
hath  no  man  condemned  thee  ?  She  said.  No  man, 
Lord.  And  Jesus  said  unto  her.  Neither  do  I  con- 
demn thee;  go  and  sin  no  more."*     With  what 

*  John  viii.  3-11. 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.      147 

simplicity  does  this  scene  illustrate  the  wisdom,  as 
well  as  the  mercy  of  the  God  made  flesh ! 

Not  seldom  did  Jesus  by  counter  interrogatories 
overwhelm  his  treacherous  foes.  The  chief  priests 
insidiously  asked  him,  "By  what  authority  doest 
thou  these  things  ?  and  who  gave  thee  this  author- 
ity ?"  To  avoid  the  alternative  of  silence  or  co- 
erced exposition,  he  preliminarily  demanded  of 
them  whether  the  baptism  of  John  was  from 
heaven  or  of  men.  The  leaders  of  the  sanhedrim 
were  confounded  by  the  question,  which  they  could 
not  parry,  and  dared  not  explicitly  answer;  and 
thus  was  he  relieved  from  the  obligation  of  re- 
sponding to  theirs.  By  means  not  wholly  dissim- 
ilar, he  eluded  the  snare  adroitly  prepared  for  him 
in  the  matter  of  paying  tribute  to  Caesar. 

The  great  prophet  of  Nazareth  was  familiar  with 
all  the  mysteries  of  our  spiritual  nature.  To  the 
young  man  in  the  Gospel  who  thought  himself  the 
personification  of  goodness,  Jesus  propounded,  as 
the  ordeal  of  his  professed  piety,  the  startling  in- 
junction, "  Go  thy  way,  sell  whatsoever  thou  hast 
and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure 
in  heaven,  and  come  take  up  thy  cross  and  follow 
me."  A  test,  so  true,  yet  so  utterly  repugnant  to 
unregenerate    humanity,   adventurers,   seeking   to 


148       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

gain  proselytes  to  an  imposture,  would  never  have 
ventured  to  prescribe.  Nothing  but  that  wisdom 
which  is  from  above  would  have  uttered  or  con- 
ceived the  astounding  truth,  "It  is  easier  for  a 
camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a 
rich  man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God."  And 
yet  even  reason  itself,  when  taught  by  the  Bible, 
must  perceive  that  the  change  of  heart,  essential 
to  qualify  the  idolater  of  wealth  for  communion 
with  the  pure  spirits  of  heaven,  is  a  greater  prodigy 
than  the  passage  of  a  camel  through  a  needle's  eye. 
The  physical  miracle  might  be  achieved  by  the 
simple  mandate  of  the  Almighty ;  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  moral  miracle  required  as  its  prelimi- 
nary the  incarnation  and  death  of  the  Son  of  God. 

Repugnance  to  believe  revealed  truths  has  been 
a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  our  race  ever 
since  the  fall.  Man  sleeps  for  ages  in  heathen  ig- 
norance, or  Mohammedan  delusion,  with  little  of 
skeptical  misgiving  to  disturb  his  lethargic  repose. 
But  wherever  the  light  of  Inspiration  seeks  to  es- 
tablish its  supremacy,  the  alarmed  prince  of  dark- 
ness arouses  himself,  and  insidiously  sows  the  tares 
of  cavil  and  of  doubt;  and  these  noxious  weeds 
spring  up  in  the  rank  soil  of  the  carnal  mind  with 
fearful  luxuriance.     The  weakness  of  fallen  human- 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST.  149 

ity,  and  the  vigilance  and  power  of  the  arch  enemy- 
were  well  known  to  the  omniscient  Redeemer,  who 
compassionated  the  doubting  Thomas,  and  conde- 
scended to  confirm  his  faith  by  the  exhibition  of 
his  own  pierced  hands  and  wounded  side.  To  the 
petition  that  the  sainted  beggar  might  be  sent  from 
the  bosom  of  Abraham  to  the  five  brethren  of  the 
lost  epicure,  to  warn  them  of  their  impending  fate, 
Jesus  made  the  father  of  the  faithful  thus  respond ; 
"  If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither 
will  they  be  persuaded  though  one  rose  from  the 
dead."  This  response,  though  veritable  as  heaven, 
would  not  have  been  conceived  by  human  wisdom. 
Where,  in  all  the  volumes  of  uninspired  genius,  can 
be  found  sketching  so  graphic,  so  sublime,  so  aw- 
fully grand  and  appalling,  as  that  displayed  by  the 
Galilean  mechanic  in  the  parable  of  the  rich  man 
"  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen,"  and  the  beggar 
"laid  at  his  gate  full  of  sores !" 

Infidelity  has  vauntingly  objected,  that  in  the 
code  of  the  virgin's  Son,  friendship  is  a  stranger. 
Even  the  eloquent  and  admired  Soame  Jenyns  af- 
firms that  friendships  "  in  their  utmost  purity  de- 
serve no  recommendation  from  this  religion." 
What,  then,  shall  be  said  of  the  friendship  of  Jesus 
for  the  family  of  Lazarus  ?     What  of  his  affection 


150  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

for  the  beloved  disciple  w^ho  leaned  on  his  bosom  ? 
What  of  the  predilections  of  the  primitive  apostles 
for  those  in  w^hom  they  found  a  holy  congeniality 
of  temper  and  of  taste  ?  The  Gospel  soil  is  not  un- 
propitious  to  the  growth  of  any  generous  affection. 
"  We  ought  to  lay  down  our  hves  for  the  brethren," 
was  the  glowing  declaration  of  the  disciple  whose 
heart  overflowed  with  all  the  tenderest  sensibilities 
of  friendship.  Jesus  himself  "is  a  friend  that 
sticketh  closer  than  a  brother."*  What  but  friend- 
ship for  the  friendless  prompted  him,  when  he  was 
rich,  for  our  sakes  to  become  poor  ?  "  Greater  love 
hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life 
for  his  friends."  Yet  was  this  acme  of  finite  affec- 
tion expanded  into  infinity  when  the  Son  of  God 
laid  down  his  life  for  his  enemies ! 

The  drama  of  redeeming  love  rose  in  interest  as 
it  approached  its  close.  One  of  its  most  moving 
scenes  was  the  interview  between  Jesus  and  his 
disciples  just  before  his  mournful  visit  to  the  garden. 
He  fed  them  with  the  symbols  of  his  own  body  and 
blood ;  the  Lord  and  Master  washed  his  servants' 
feet.  As  soon  as  the  traitor  had  left  the  sacred 
presence,  there  was  laid  open  to  the  faithful  eleven 

*  Proverbs  xviii.  24. 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.      151 

the  very  soul  of  the  incarnate  Deity.  No  longer 
regarding  them  as  servants,  he  styled  them  his 
friends;  he  bequeathed  to  them  the  enjoyment  of 
the  richest  jewel  in  his  treasury,  even  his  own  price- 
less peace.  Announcing  his  departure  from  the 
world,  he  cheered  them  with  the  assurance  that  he 
went  to  prepare  for  them  mansions  in  his  Father's 
house.  He  promised  the  Comforter,  who  should 
abide  with  them  forever.  The  pressing  remem- 
brance of  his  own  approaching  pangs  was  absorbed 
for  a  time  in  the  kindly  charities  of  parting  friend- 
ship. Thrice  did  he  reiterate  to  the  mourning 
orphans  his  dying  mandate,  that  they  should  love 
one  another.  The  interview  he  closed  by  fervent 
prayer,  invoking  blessings  on  those  so  soon  to  be 
bereaved,  and  on  the  faithful  to  the  end  of  time. 
Such  was  the  friendship  of  the  friend  of  sinners ! 
Where  can  such  a  parting  interview  be  found  in 
the  annals  of  earthly  affection  ? 

A  striking  feature  in  the  character  of  Christ  was 
his  matchless  simplicity.  His  manners  were  sim- 
ple ;  his  style  was  guileless  of  art ;  he  arrayed  the 
profoundest  thoughts  in  the  plainest  garb.  His 
parables,  so  familiar,  so  unadorned,  so  sublimely 
concise  and  pathetic,  make  their  way  directly  to 
the  inmost  recesses  of  the  understanding,  and  to 


152      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

the  very  core  of  the  heart.  What  was  the  oratory 
of  Demosthenes  or  of  TuUy  compared  to  the  sim- 
ple, the  soul-touching  eloquence  of  Mary's  Son? 
He  delighted  in  the  companionship  of  little  chil- 
dren. When  his  disciples  rebuked  them,  he  ex- 
claimed, "Suffer  little  children,  and  forbid  them 
not,  to  come  unto  me ;  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.'*  Wherein  did  little  children  resemble 
the  pure  spirits  of  paradise  ?  Surely  not  in  holi- 
ness, born,  as  they  were,  in  sin.  The  resemblance 
must  have  consisted  in  their  artless  simplicity.  It 
was  their  simplicity,  then,  that  endeared  them  to 
the  gracious  Saviour.  Simplicity  is  an  attribute 
of  heaven  ;  and  the  Son  of  God  was  its  personifica- 
tion on  earth.  At  the  creation  he  stamped  sim- 
plicity on  all  his  material  works.  The  planets  roll 
onward  in  simple  majesty ;  and  the  flowers  of  the 
field  rear  their  little  heads  in  simple  loveliness. 
Simplicity  marks  every  page  of  the  volume  of  na- 
ture ;  it  marks,  too,  every  page  of  the  Volume  of 
Grace.  Their  resemblance  in  simpleness  manifests 
that  both  volumes  are  the  offspring  of  one  common 
Parent. 

The  great  Teacher  had  a  manner  of  imparting 
instruction,  which  impostors  would  not  and  could 
not  have  fabricated.     Well  might  the  astonished 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.      153 

people  declare  that  "  he  taught  them  as  one  having 
authority."  "Never  man  spake  like  this  man," 
was  the  official  report  of  the  messengers  of  the 
chief  priests  and  pharisees  sent  to  arrest  him. 
There  is  a  wide  difference  between  the  confidence 
of  truth  and  the  effrontery  of  imposture.  It  was 
the  majesty  of  conscious  truth,  bodied  forth  in  look 
and  voice,  which  carried  home  his  glowing  words 
to  the  inmost  recesses  of  every  soul.  Honesty 
yielded  them  its  implicit  credence ;  incorrigible 
prejudice  gnashed  on  them  with  its  teeth;  none 
heard  them  with  callous  indifference.  He  taught 
not  by  elaborated  discussions ;  his  effusions,  extem- 
poraneous and  sententious,  seem  generally  to  have 
been  prompted  by  surrounding  scenes  or  passing 
events.  His  doctrines  and  precepts  he  deigned 
not  to  sustain  by  concatenations  of  argument ;  he 
deemed  his  own  fiat  their  sufficient  authentication. 
He  sent  forth  his  unpremeditated  thoughts,  as  he 
sends  forth  the  lightning  of  the  skies,  to  illuminate 
and  to  strike  by  their  own  inherent  potency. 

A  master  in  either  of  the  schools  of  learned 
Athens,  would  have  been  deemed  insane  had  he 
practised  the  mode  of  teaching  affirmed  of  the 
prophet  of  Nazareth.  Nor  would  the  fabricators 
of  a  religious  romance  have  ventured  to  forge  such 


154      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

method  for  its  hero.  It  would  fail  in  naturalness, 
unless  we  assume  that  the  incarnation  was  a  re- 
ality. It  is  only  through  the  sublime  truth  that 
the  great  Teacher  in  the  Gospel  was  the  second 
person  of  the  Trinity,  that  we  can  divest  his  mode 
of  teaching  of  its  seeming  incongruities.  With  the 
eye  of  faith  steadfastly  bent  upon  the  incarnation, 
we  may  indeed  perceive  that  although  Jesus  Christ 
spake  as  never  man  spake,  yet  that  he  nevertheless 
taught  and  commanded  just  as  it  became  a  Deity 
clothed  in  manhood,  to  teach  and  to  command.  It 
was  to  be  expected  that  the  eternal  Word  made 
flesh  would  address  his  creatures,  as  he  had  ad- 
dressed them  at  Sinai,  in  terms  brief,  sententious, 
imperative ;  resting  for  authority,  not  on  elaborate 
ratiocination,  but  upon  his  own  ineffable  majesty. 
The  teaching  of  Jesus  was  in  strict  concord  with 
the  attributes  of  his  complex  being.  It  was  a  fit- 
ting part  of  one  harmonious  whole.  To  believe 
that  stupendous  whole  the  creation  of  unlettered 
peasants,  would  require  a  stronger  faith  than  to  be- 
lieve it  a  revelation  from  God. 

Fictitious  writings  live  upon  the  breath  of  popu- 
lar applause.  It  is  the  element  of  their  vitality; 
and  if  it  is  withdrawn,  they  die  and  become  the 
food  of  worms.     Imaginative  authors,  whether  in 


i* 


THE    CHAKACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST.  155 

prose  or  verse,  accommodate  their  fictions  to  the 
principles  and  passions  of  our  common  nature. 
Universal  applause  is  the  idol  of  their  worship. 
The  conquest  of  a  world  is  as  dear  to  them  as  it 
ever  was  to  a  martial  hero.  They  follow  public 
taste  as  the  needle  turns  to  the  pole.  Their  plot 
with  its  episodes,  their  machinery,  their  artifices  of 
arrangement  and  ornaments  of  diction,  are  all  for 
effect.  Even  the  epic  muse  bends  her  majestic 
form  to  the  prejudices  of  ages  and  of  climes.  Her 
varied  lore  and  her  magic  spells  are  all  combined 
to  win  for  herself  an  immortality  of  fame.  No 
imaginative  writer  can  ever  aspire  to  renown  with- 
out copious  oblations  upon  the  altars  of  the  gods  of 
this  world. 

Of  fame  the  "  meek  and  lowly"  Jesus  was  not  a 
follower ;  at  the  shrine  of  that  goddess  he  offered 
no  incense ;  he  stooped  to  none  of  fiction's  arts  to 
beguile  attention  and  seduce  belief.  Instead  of 
conciliating  the  pride  of  the  heart,  he  declared  it 
the  sink  of  sin ;  instead  of  expatiating  upon  the 
dignity  of  human  nature,  he  pronounced  it  so 
fallen,  corrupt,  and  degraded  as  to  require  for  its 
cleansing  the  tears  of  repentance  and  the  blood  of 
God.  The  flight  of  time  never  beheld  a  produc- 
tion so  utterly  opposed  to  every  passion  and  preju- 


156       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

dice  of  humanity  as  was  the  Gospel  of  the  crucified 
Redeemer.  Nothing  but  the  power  of  truth  could 
have  achieved  its  glorious  triumphs. 

There  are  omissions  in  the  evangelical  accounts 
of  Jesus  Christ  which  would  not  have  befallen 
works  of  romance.  Fiction  is  wont  to  depict  the 
features  and  mien  of  its  hero.  Reserve  upon  these 
attractive  themes  would  essentially  impair  its 
chance  for  popular  favor.  Of  the  personal  appear- 
ance of  the  Son  of  God  the  Gospel  is  silent.  For 
eighteen  centuries  his  outward  man  has  been  a  sub- 
ject of  almost  painful  inquisitiveness.  What 
would  not  pious  wealth  have  given  for  a  statue  or  a 
painting  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  wrought  from 
scriptural  materials  by  the  hand  of  a  master !  The 
Gospel  affords  no  such  materials.  It  contains  ex- 
haustless  food  for  the  immortal  mind  ;  not  a  tittle 
of  aliment  for  idle  curiosity.  Even  upon  its 
heaven  and  its  hell,  it  maintains  a  sublime  reserve. 
It  powerfully,  yet  dimly,  shadows  them  forth  to  the 
awe-stricken  imagination,  without  detailing  the  en- 
joyments of  the  blest,  or  the  secrets  of  the  great 
prison-house  of  despair.  This  is  a  peculiarity 
which  distinguishes  the  religion  of  the  cross  from 
all  impostures. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE   SAME   SUBJECT   CONTINUED. 


Trial  of  Jesus  Christ — His  grandeur  and  humility — Incidents  of 
his  trial — Conduct  of  Judas — No  other  traitor  ever  induced  by 
compunctious  visitings  to  commit  suicide — His  remorse  and  self 
murder  were  dying  confessions  of  the  innocency  and  godhead  of 
his  Master — FaU  and  penitence  of  Peter — Conduct  of  Pontius 
Pilate — The  crucifixion  of  Jesus  Christ — He  spoke  seven  times 
from  the  cross — And  as  man  never  spoke — Bad  men  could  not 
have  forged  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ  if  they  would — And 
good  men  would  not  have  forged  it  if  they  could — Extract  from 


The  trial  of  the  Son  of  God  detailed  in  the  Sa- 
cred Record,  constitutes  one  of  the  most  stupendous 
scenes  in  the  drama  of  salvation.  Such  a  scene 
could  not  have  been  delineated  by  the  unaided  ef- 
forts of  the  fishermen  of  Galilee.  How  artless  is 
the  evangelical  representation,  surpassing  in  sim- 
plicity childhood's  most  guileless  tale !  Yet  how 
sublimely  magnificent  the  conception  bodied  forth ! 
The  Majesty  of  the  heaven  of  heavens,  clothed  in 
manhood,  stands  a  submissive  captive  at  the  bar  of 
an  earthly  tribunal !  How  could  the  human  mind 
of  itself  have  imagined  the  words  and  acts  befitting 
a  Being  so  humbled,   so  transcendently  august? 


158  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

Yet  reason  itself,  enlightened  by  the  Gospel,  per- 
ceives, and  is  obliged  to  admit  that  the  words  and 
acts  ascribed  to  the  incarnate  Deity  were  in  exact 
accordance  with  the  complex  character  he  had 
condescended  to  assume. 

The  grandeur  and  meekness  of  the  Prisoner  of 
Pilate  were  mingled  in  ineffable  harmony.  He  mi- 
raculously prostrated  to  the  ground  those  who  came 
to  seize  him.  He  restored  the  severed  ear  of  the 
servant  of  the  high  priest.  He  announced  himself 
to  be  the  King  of  the  Jews,  the  predicted  Messiah, 
the  Son  of  God,  the  Judge  of  earth.  Yet  was  he 
"  brought  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter."  Though  he 
wielded  the  thunders  of  omnipotence,  he  permitted 
his  oppressors  to  spit  on  him  in  the  face ;  they  buf- 
feted him ;  they  smote  him  with  the  palms  of  their 
hands ;  they  scourged  him ;  they  gave  him  to  drink 
vinegar  mingled  with  gall;  they  contemptuously 
clothed  him  in  a  purple  robe,  and  placed  on  his 
head  a  crown  of  thorns,  and  bowed  the  knee  before 
him  in  mock  adoration. 

It  was  not  in  humanity,  with  the  utmost  fortitude 
pertaining  to  its  sphere,  to  have  borne  with  un- 
repining  patience  the  mockings,  the  scourgings, 
the  spittings,  endured  by  the  incarnate  God.  The 
delineation  of  his  trial,  if  regarded  as  the  imperso- 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST.  159 

nation  of  simple  mortality,  would  seem  strange  and 
unnatural.  Indwelling  divinity  is  indispensable  to 
its  verisimilitude.  Regarded  as  the  impersonation 
of  God  manifested  in  the  flesh  that  he  might  atone 
for  the  sins  of  the  world  by  unearthly  humiliation 
and  sufl:erings,  it  assumes  intrinsic  marks  of  al- 
mighty truth.  Thus  viewed,  the  representation  of 
the  doings  and  sayings,  and  speaking  silence  of  the 
Arraigned  before  Pilate,  makes  its  resistless  way  to 
the  understanding,  the  conscience  and  the  heart.  The 
events  of  his  trial  seem  but  the  natural  consequences 
of  his  incarnation.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that 
the  humbled  God  would  have  humbled  himself  after 
the  manner  of  men.  When  he  became  lowly,  it 
was  but  godlike  that  his  lowliness  should,  in  its  in- 
finitude, have  resembled  the  infinitude  of  his  glory. 

The  trial  and  condemnation  of  Jesus  Christ  ex- 
hibit subordinate  characters  and  incidents  illustra- 
tive of  his  divinity. 

The  treason  of  Judas  consisted,  not  in  acts  of 
direct  violence,  but  in  his  information  to  the  chief 
priests  of  the  time  when  his  Master  would  be  found 
in  a  solitary  place,  so  that  they  might  arrest  him 
without  danger  of  popular  commotion.  Upon 
learning  that  he  was  condemned,  and  about  to  be 
executed,  the  remorseful  culprit  went  again  to  the 


160      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

chief  priests,  confessed  to  them  that  he  had  "  be- 
trayed the  innocent  blood,"  and  when  they  heeded 
him  not,  cast  down  at  their  feet  the  thirty  pieces 
of  silver,  with  which  they  had  bribed  him,  and  de- 
parted and  hanged  himself  The  catastrophe  of 
his  unfaithfulness  presents  an  anomaly  in  the  his- 
tory of  treason.  Traitors  have  existed  in  every 
age ;  but  none  save  the  betrayer  of  Emmanuel  was 
ever  driven  by  compunctious  visitings  to  lay  suici- 
dal hands  upon  himself  His  despair  and  self-mur- 
der were  not  induced  by  the  bare  consciousness 
that  he  had  betrayed  innocent  blood.  Treason  has 
often  caused  the  death  of  innocency,  and  yet  slept 
in  callous  indifference.  Iscariot  was  urged  to  his 
fate  by  the  maddening  thought  that  he  had  be- 
trayed not  only  the  blood  of  man,  but  the  blood  of 
God. 

The  betrayer  of  Jesus  could  not  have  been  mis- 
taken in  the  character  and  lineage  of  the  Betrayed. 
He  had  spent  years  in  his  immediate  family ;  he 
had  been  the  ear- witness  of  his  doctrines  and  pre- 
cepts, the  eye-witness  of  his  wonderful  works ;  he 
had  himself  wrought  miracles  in  his  authoritative 
name.  If  he  had  only  freed  the  world  of  an  im- 
postor, he  might  have  gloried  in  his  act.  But  he 
well  knew,  and  despairingly  proclaimed,  that  he 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST.  161 

had  sold  the  Lord  of  glory.  The  cast  out  devils 
confessed  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  of  God.  The 
apostate  Judas  reiterated  the  momentous  confes- 
sion ;  and  his  murderous  hands  sealed  it  with  his 
ow^n  blood. 

Declarations  solemnly  made  in  the  immediate 
presence  of  the  king  of  terrors,  without  compulsion 
or  persuasion,  at  the  sacrifice  of  character  and  of 
property,  stand  second  in  convincing  power  to  no 
testimony  of  earthly  origin.  The  dying  declaration 
of  Iscariot  w^as  unsolicited  and  voluntary ;  it  drew 
after  it  the  surrender  of  his  thirty  pieces  of  silver ; 
it  superadded  to  the  abhorrence  of  the  faithful,  the 
contempt  of  the  Jews.  It  could  not  have  been 
prompted  by  any  expectation  of  arresting  the  sac- 
rilegious machinery  he  had  set  in  motion,  or  of 
rendering  more  tolerable  his  condition  in  the  com- 
ing world.  It  was  a  sublime  and  awful  demonstra- 
tion of  the  intrinsic  potency  of  truth,  bursting  forth 
by  its  own  volcanic  force  from  the  despairing 
heart.  We  doubt  whether  the  last  declaration  of 
the  reprobate  Judas  is  less  decisive  in  its  confirm- 
atory bearing  on  the  christian  evidences,  than  the 
dying  declaration  of  the  martyred  Stephen,  when 
he  said,  "  Behold,  I  see  the  heavens  opened,  and  the 
Son  of  man  standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God." 


162       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

Infidelity  can  find  no  escape  in  the  subterfuge, 
that  the  sacred  writers  may  have  forged  the  over- 
powering story  of  the  betrayer  of  his  Master. 
Matthew  affirms  that,  when  the  conscience-smitten 
traitor  had  confessed  the  innocence  of  his  victim, 
and  cast  down  in  the  temple  the  thirty  pieces  of 
silver,  the  chief  priests  took  up  the  money,  and, 
declaring  that  it  was  not  lawful  to  put  into  the 
treasury  the  price  of  blood,  bought  with  the  silver 
pieces  the  potter's  field  to  bury  strangers,  and  that 
the  field  was  still  called  the  field  of  blood  when  the 
evangelist  wrote. 

The  evangelist  thus  subjected  the  verity  of  his 
narrative  to  the  test  of  public  monuments  and  his- 
tory. Whether,  just  after  the  crucifixion,  a  ceme- 
tery had  been  purchased  in  the  environs  of  the 
Hebrew  metropolis  for  the  interment  of  strangers ; 
whether  that  cemetery  had  originally  assumed  and 
ever  maintained  the  name  of  "  the  field  of  blood," 
and  whether  its  distinctive  and  strongly-marked 
appellation  had  been  derived  from  the  treason  of 
Judas  Iscariot;  were  points  upon  which  the  twi- 
light of  peradventure  rested  not  at  the  date  of 
Matthew's  publication.  The  truth  or  falsity  of  the 
alleged  facts  must  have  been  known  to  all  the 
dwellers  at  Jerusalem,  when  within   less  than  a 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.      163 

quarter  of  a  century  after  their  supposed  occur- 
rence, the  first  of  the  Gospels  made  its  appearance 
in  that  city.  Many  members  of  the  sanhedrim, 
before  which  our  Lord  was  arraigned,  were  doubt- 
less then  living;  and  its  deceased  members  were 
unquestionably  represented  by  numerous  descend- 
ants ready  to  sustain  the  character  of  their  ances- 
tors. Vindictive  hosts  of  Jewish  and  pagan  oppo- 
nents, bent  on  exterminating  the  new  and  hated 
faith,  would  eagerly  invoke  from  the  repositories 
of  truth  or  calumny,  and  triumphantly  proclaim  to 
a  deriding  world,  any  fact  or  rumor  tending  to  im- 
peach the  fidelity  of  the  leading  evangelist.  Even 
Celsus,  the  heathen  philosopher,  who  wrote  elabo- 
rately against  Christianity  in  the  second  century, 
admits,  as  we  have  already  seen  in  a  previous 
chapter,  the  truthfulness  of  the  story  of  Judas,  and 
urges,  as  an  argument  against  our  holy  religion, 
that  its  Founder,  claiming  to  be  omniscient,  per- 
mitted himself  to  be  betrayed  by  one  of  his  chosen 
twelve. 

Peter's  fall  and  repentance  are  incidents  of  the 
trial  of  Jesus  Christ  strongly  corroborative  of  the 
inspiration  of  the  Gospel.  The  apostolic  lapse, 
following  so  closely  the  most  vehement  assevera- 
tions of  enduring  constancy,  would  not  have  been 


164      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

likely  to  be  introduced  by  unbelieving  impostors 
into  a  work  of  fiction.  It  must  have  startled  by 
its  unnaturalness,  were  it  not  for  the  scriptural 
revelations  of  the  deceitfulness  of  the  heart,  and 
the  tremendous  power  of  the  prince  of  darkness. 
The  unchristianized  imagination  would  be  still  less 
apt  to  have  devised  the  contrition  of  the  apostle. 
Evangehcal  experience  is  a  department  of  knowl- 
edge, in  the  exploration  of  which  unaided  reason 
could  make  little  progress.  True  repentance  can 
be  portrayed  only  by  him  who  has  felt  it.  Homer 
could  have  composed  the  fifty-first  Psalm  no  more 
than  he  could  have  searched  with  omniscient  ken 
the  secrets  of  stranger  hearts.  None,  unless  him- 
self a  penitent,  could  vie  with  the  son  of  Jesse  in 
the  delineation  of  penitence.  The  simple,  the 
graphic,  the  soul-touching  words,  "And  the  Lord 
turned  and  looked  upon  Peter" — "  And  Peter  went 
out  and  wept  bitterly,"  flowed  not  from  the  pen  of 
a  conscious  and  callous  deceiver. 
1"  In  the  trial  of  our  Lord,  the  conduct  and  decla- 
.  rations  of  the  Roman  governor  form  memorable 
^  incidents.  He  was  not  ignorant  that  the  prisoner 
claimed  to  be  the  Christ,  the  King  of  the  Jews,  the 
Son  of  God.  Yet  at  the  close  of  the  trial,  Pilate 
pronounced  him  a  "just  person,"  and  sought  to 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.      165 

cleanse  himself,  by  the  ablution  of  his  hands,  from 
the  stain  of  innocent  blood.  He  would  not  have 
bestowed  on  the  prisoner  that  honorable  and  high 
appellation,  had  he  thought  him  an  errant  and  blas- 
pheming impostor,  deluding  earth  and  affronting 
heaven  by  false  pretensions  to  divine  titles  and  at- 
tributes. Pilate  must,  therefore,  have  held  that  the 
victim  of  Jewish  malignancy  was  above  the  grade 
of  mortality.  On  no  other  supposition  could  he 
have  pronounced  him  a  "just  person. "J 

The  trial  is  replete  with  other  circumstances 
corroborative  of  the  belief  of  Pilate,  that  the  ac- 
cused was  of  celestial  birth.  It  was  this  belief, 
and  not  any  sentiment  of  compassion,  that  induced 
the  hesitancy  and  vacillation  of  the  profligate  and 
iron-hearted  judge.  Pity  never  touched  the  un- 
feeling soul  of  Pilate.  But  even  he  stood  appalled 
at  the  thought  of  condemning  to  crucifixion  an  in- 
carnate Deity.  Hence  his  reiterated  appeals  to 
the  populace,  pressing  the  innocency  of  Jesus,  and 
urging  them  to  ask  his  release.  Hence  his  appli- 
cations to  the  prisoner  himself,  to  explain  who  and 
whence  he  was.  Hence  his  effort  to  cast  upon 
Herod  the  responsibility  of  an  acquittal  or  condem- 
nation. When  the  Jews  recalled  his  attention  to 
the  avowal  of  Jesus  that  he  was  the  Son  of  God, 


166  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

Pilate  became  "the  more  afraid."  The  dream  of 
his  wife  confirmed  his  apprehensions :  and  it  was 
not  until  hundreds  of  infuriated  voices  had  threat- 
ened the  vengeance  of  Csesar,  in  case  he  should 
dare  to  liberate  a  rival  claimant  to  sovereignty, 
that  he  finally  delivered  the  accused  to  his  fate. 
His  consciousness  of  official  delinquencies  rendered 
him  peculiarly  fearful  of  the  scrutiny  of  his  imperial 
master. 

The  belief  entertained  by  the  Roman  judge  that 
his  prisoner  was  of  heavenly  origin,  rested  on  rea- 
sons of  pressing  cogency.  Pilate  had  for  many 
years  been  procurator  of  Judea.  He  was  familiar 
with  the  accounts  of  the  wonderful  works  predicated 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  He  had  ample  means  of 
ascertaining  whether  the  alleged  miracles  were 
real  or  simulated,  and  could  not  have  been  mistaken 
in  their  character.  If  they  were  real,  they  demon- 
strated the  divine  powers  of  him  who  wrought 
them.  If  they  "were  simulated,  they  proved  him  a 
public  cheat.  Upon  the  supposition  of  their  falsity, 
Pilate  would  not  have  declared  to  the  Jewish  mul- 
titude, "I  am  innocent  of  the  blood  of  this  just 
person ;  see  ye  to  it."  Nor  can  we  suppose  that 
the  responsive  imprecation,  "  His  blood  be  on  us 
and  on  our  children,"  would  have  entailed  the  curse 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST.  167 

of  heaven  upon  the  whole  Hebrew  race  for  more 
than  eighteen  centuries,  had  the  central  cross  of 
Calvary  been  crimsoned  from  the  veins  of  a  mere 
impostor.  The  mien  of  the  accused  must  have  in- 
spired the  Roman  procurator  with  awe.  His  very 
look  had  made  its  way  to  the  heart  of  the  denying 
apostle.  His  whole  demeanor  was  unearthly;  his 
meekness,  his  patience,  his  silence  when  speaking 
might  have  saved  his  life,  pertained  not  to  the 
sphere  of  humanity.  He  acted,  he  spoke,  he  looked 
the  God;  eclipsed  indeed,  but  not  wholly  concealed 
by  the  covering  of  flesh. 

Unbelief  has  never,  to  our  knowledge,  attempted 
to  impeach  the  evangelical  accounts  of  the  conduct 
and  declarations  of  the  Roman  governor  at  the 
trial  of  Jesus  Christ.  At  least  three  of  the  Gospels 
were  published  before  the  generation  to  which  Pi- 
late belonged  had  passed  away.  At  the  times  of 
their  publication,  many  were,  doubtless,  alive  who 
had  been  personally  present  at  the  trial,  and  were 
hostile  to  the  new  religion.  Unfaithfulness  in  the 
history  of  public  proceedings,  of  such  recent  date 
and  absorbing  interest,  would  have  been  closely 
followed  by  exposure  and  indignant  reprobation. 

Candor  is  a  twin  sister  of  truth.  The  unaffected 
and  inimitable  candor  displayed  by  the  evangelists 


168  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

in  the  relation  of  their  Master's  trial  are  strong  con- 
firmations of  its  verity.  The  outrages,  v^hich 
caused  the  quaking  of  the  firm-seated  earth,  and  the 
obscuration  of  the  luminary  of  day,  they  recounted 
in  language  simple,  ingenuous  and  unimpassioned. 
No  vestige  of  prejudice  or  partiality  is  to  be  found 
in  these  narratives.  The  disciples  of  Jesus  recip- 
rocated naught  of  the  rancor  of  the  chief  priests 
and  elders.  They  stated  the  actings  and  doings  of 
the  time-serving  Pilate  w^ithout  the  slighest  inter- 
mixture of  vituperative  comment.  They  left  the 
traitor  Judas  to  the  scorpion  stings  of  his  own  con- 
science, and,  sparing  of  human  maledictions,  con- 
signed him  to  the  retributions  of  eternity. 

The  crucifixion  of  Jesus  Christ  was  the  last  scene 
of  his  humiliation.  It  appears  from  the  Sacred 
Record,  that  he  spoke  seven  times  after  being  nailed 
to  the  cross.  He  declared  to  the  penitent  thief, 
"Verily  I  say  unto  thee,  to-day  thou  shalt  be  with 
me  in  paradise."  He  said  to  the  weeping  Mary 
and  to  the  beloved  disciple  respectively,  "  Woman 
behold  thy  son ;"  Son,  "  Behold  thy  mother."  The 
following  ejaculations  also  burst  from  his  agonized 
lips :  "  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what 
they  do;"  "I  thirst;"  "My  God,  my  God,  why  hast 
thou  forsaken  me;"   "Father    into   thy   hands   I 


^ 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.      169 

commend  my  spirit ;"  "  It  is  finished."  The  order 
of  his  expiring  declarations  is  not  distinctly  stated 
in  the  inspired  pages.  If  these  were,  indeed,  the 
last  words  of  Jesus  Christ,  they  prove  beyond  per- 
adventure  that  he  was  not  an  impostor.  No  im- 
postor ever  spoke  and  died  as  he  is  represented  to 
have  spoken  and  died.  Well  might  the  centurion 
who  "  stood  over  against  him  and  saw  that  he  so 
cried  out  and  gave  up  the  ghost,"  exclaim,  "  Truly 
this  man  was  the  Son  of  God."* 

Infidelity  can  elude  the  demonstration  imparted 
by  the  scene  of  the  cross  only  by  the  bold  affirma- 
tion that  it  was  a  sheer  fabrication.  But  how 
could  profligate  counterfeiters  have  conceived  such 
a  scene  ?  Its  elements  were  not  derived  from  the 
previous  realities  of  human  life.  Until  the  death  of 
Christ  no  martyr  ever  prayed  for  his  murderers. 
That  was  a  prodigy  to  which  the  Gospel  gave  birth. 
The  pathetic  exclamation,  "  My  God,  my,  God  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  referred  not  to  the  de- 
livery of  his  person  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies ; 
for  he  had  declared  upon  his  arrest,  that  he  could 
pray  to  his  Father,  who  would  presently  send  him 
more  than  twelve  legions  of  angels.     It   was   his 


*  Mark  xv. 
8 


170  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

spirit  that  was  forsaken  of  his  God.  The  wailing 
sent  forth  from  the  cross  was  induced,  not  by  the 
scoffings  or  scourgings  or  spittings,  nor  yet  by  the 
lacerating  irons.  It  was  spiritual  bereavement  and 
dismay  that  overwhelmed  the  Sufferer. 

If  the  writers  of  the  Gospel  were  its  fabricators, 
they  must  have  been  the  vilest  of  men.     But  how 
could  such  men  have  conceived  the  fact  that  a  holy 
being  lives  upon  the  light  of  God's  countenance, 
and  is  cast  into  the  depths  of  despair  if  that  light  is 
withdrawn  ?     Such  fact,  though  true  as  heaven,  is 
beyond  the  sphere  of  mortal  imagination.     Had  the 
high-reaching  Plato,  instead  of  his  perfect  common- 
wealth,  attempted   to  portray  a  perfect   hero   of 
theological  romance,  he  might  have  conducted  him 
through  all  the  trials  to  which  flesh  is  heir,  and 
finally  crowned  him  with  the  martyrdom  of  the 
cross ;  but  even  his  sublime  fancy  could  not  have 
thrown  into  the  fable  the  unearthly  thought  that 
the  loss  of  the  light  of  God's  countenance  is  the 
acme  of  suffering.     Such  a  thought  pertains  not  to 
uninspired  and  unregenerate  humanity.     The  car- 
nal heart  knows  nothing — dreams  nothing — of  the 
ineffable  light  of  the  divine  countenance,  and  con- 
sequently nothing  of  the  unutterable  anguish  caused 
by  its  loss. 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST.  171 

The  terms  "  It  is  finished,"  pronounced  by  the 
Sufferer  on  Calvary,  embodied  thoughts  which  the 
uninspired  mind  could  not  have  grasped.  They 
reached  and  pervaded  infinitude.  It  was  the  Infi- 
nite who  uttered  them.  They  were  the  last  words 
of  the  tragedy  of  redemption.  What  was  "fin- 
ished ?"  The  extermination  of  the  empire  of  dark- 
ness was  "  finished."  The  temple  of  salvation  for 
perishing  mortals  was  "  finished."  The  most  glori- 
ous structure  ever  reared  by  omnipotent  power 
was  "finished."  The  throes  and  agonies  of  the 
Son  of  God  were  "  finished." 

We  have  thus  in  the  present  chapter  and  the 
two  which  immediately  precede  it,  sought  to  show 
that  the  character  of  the  Christ  of  the  Gospel  could 
not  have  been  conceived  and  delineated  by  any  un- 
aided effort  of  the  human  mind.  The  proofs  of  the 
position  seem  to  be  irresistible.  Should,  however, 
any  timid  inquirer  after  truth  incline  to  believe 
that  it  is  too  broadly  stated,  it  might  be  narrowed 
down,  without  impairing  its  force,  to  the  affirmation 
that  had  men  could  not  have  conceived  and  deline- 
ated the  character.  Thus  modified,  the  position 
cannot  but  command  the  acquiescence  of  the  most 
hesitating  inquirer,  unless  he  unfortunately  fails  in 
the  article  of  candor.     In  the  character  of  Jesus 


TTTsrTVP"Rc;TT 


172      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

Christ  godliness  is  the  chief  element.  The  signifi- 
cation of  godliness  has  been  familiar  to  the  christian 
of  every  age  and  clime.  It  is  written  on  the  tablet 
of  his  heart.  But  bad  men  are  as  ignorant  of  godli- 
ness as  a  blind  man  is  of  colors.  It  is  not  palpable 
to  carnal  vision — it  is  spiritually  discerned.  A  bad 
man  could  conceive  and  depict  the  life  of  godliness 
in  all  its  varied  yet  harmonious  hues,  including  its 
outward  demonstrations  and  inward  exercises,  no 
tnore  than  a  man  blind  from  his  birth  could  con- 
ceive and  depict  the  lights  and  shades  of  the  ever- 
changing,  ever-glorious  landscape. 

Had  bad  men,  without  the  lamp  of  Revelation, 
formed  a  god  for  themselves,  the  idol  of  their  crea- 
tion would  have  resembled  but  dimly  the  august 
Ancient  of  Days.  And  had  they,  by  the  mere  light 
of  nature,  attempted  to  form  a  saviour  of  the  world, 
their  fabricated  redeemer  would  have  borne  a  still 
less  similitude  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  A  mes- 
siah  of  profane  fiction  would  have  approximated 
scarcely  in  semblance  the  "  Holy  Thing"  born  of 
the  virgin.  It  would  not,  like  Him,  have  endured 
with  meekness  and  patient  magnanimity  the  sweat 
of  labor  and  the  sweat  of  blood.  The  offspring  of 
human  passion,  pride,  and  mahgnancy  must  have 
betrayed  some  marks  of  its  earthly  parentage  in  the 


'^# 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.      173 

palace  of  the  high  priest,  at  the  judgment-seat  of 
Pilate,  or  in  the  hall  of  Herod,  with  body  scourged, 
and  face  spit  upon,  and  head  lacerated  with  the 
crown  of  thorns.  It  could  not  by  mortal  arts  have 
been  made  to  suffer  and  to  die  as  the  Son  of  God 
suffered  and  died. 

We  are,  then,  to  conclude  that  bad  men  could 
not  have  conceived  and  delineated  the  character  of 
Jesus  Christ.  And  the  conclusion  is  equally  irre- 
sistible that  good  men  would  not  have  banded  to- 
gether to  concoct  and  disseminate  a  wicked  and 
impious  imposture.  That  good  men  forged  the 
story  of  redeeming  love  is,  indeed,  a  supposition 
that  infidelity  has  never  had  the  hardihood  to  advo- 
cate. It  may  thus  be  recognized  as  an  everlasting 
truth,  that  good  men  would  not  have  fabricated,  if 
they  could,  the  character  of  our  blessed  Saviour, 
and  that  bad  men  could  not  have  done  it  if  they 
would. 

We  close  our  remarks  upon  the  character,  trial, 
and  crucifixion  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  subjoining  a 
memorable  passage  from  the  writings  of  the  unbe- 
lieving and  profligate  Rousseau.  In  the  bosom  of 
the  Genevan  philosopher  was  deeply  implanted  a 
sensibility  to  the  charms  of  truth,  which  neither 
the  blighting  frosts  of  skepticism,  nor  the  poisonous 


174      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

influences  of  a  dissolute  life,  could  utterly  extin- 
guish. It  burst  forth  from  its  smouldering  ruins 
in  the  following  sublime  eulogy  of  the  Gospel  and 
its  divine  Pounder : — 

"I  will  confess  to  you,"  says  the  infidel  associate  of 
Hume,  "  that  the  majesty  of  the  scriptures  strikes  me  with 
admiration,  as  the  purity  of  the  gospel  hath  its  influence 
on  my  heart.  Peruse  the  works  of  our  philosophers 
with  all  their  pomp  of  diction;  how  mean,  how  con- 
temptible are  they,  compared  with  the  scriptures!  Is  it 
possible  that  a  book,  at  once  so  simple  and  sublime, 
should  be  merely  the  work  of  man  ?  Is  it  possible  that 
the  sacred  personage,  whose  history  it  contains,  should 
be  himself  a  mere  man?  Do  we  find  that  he  assumed 
the  tone  of  an  enthusiast  or  ambitious  sectary?  What 
sweetness,  what  purity  in  his  manner!  What  an  affect- 
ing gracefulness  in  his  delivery !  What  sublimity  in 
his  maxims !  What  profound  wisdom  in  his  discourses  ! 
What  presence  of  mind,  what  subtlety,  what  truth  in  his 
rephes !  How  great  the  command  over  his  passions  I 
Where  is  the  man,  where  the  philosopher,  who  could  so 
Uve,  and  so  die,  without  weakness  and  without  ostentation  ? 
When  Plato  describes  his  imaginary  good  man,  loaded  with 
all  the  punishments  of  guilt,  yet  meriting  the  highest  re- 
wards of  virtue,  he  describes  exactly  the  character  of  Jesus 
Christ :  the  resemblance  was  so  striking,  that  all  the  fathers 
perceived  it.  What  prepossession,  what  blindness  must  it  be, 
to  compare  the  son  of  Sophroniscus  to  the  son  of  Mary  1 
What   an  infinite  disproportion  there  is  between  them! 


THE    CHARACTER    OF    JESUS    CHRIST.  175 

Socrates,  dying  without  pain  or  ignominy,  easily  supported 
his  character  to  the  last ;  and  if  his  death,  however  easy, 
had  not  crowned  his  life,  it  might  have  been  doubted 
whether  Socrates,  with  all  his  wisdom,  was  anything  more 
than  a  mere  sophist.  He  invented,  it  is  said,  the  theoiy  of 
morals.  Others,  however,  had  before  put  them  in  practice ; 
he  had  only  to  say,  therefore,  what  they  had  done,  and  to 
reduce  their  examples  to  precepts.  Aristides  had  been  just, 
before  Socrates  defined  justice;  Leonidas  had  given  up  his 
life  for  his  country,  before  Socrates  declared  patriotism  to 
be  a  duty;  the  Spartans  were  a  sober  people  before 
Socrates  recommended  sobriety ;  before  he  had  even  de- 
fined \irtue,  Greece  abounded  in  virtuous  men.  But  where 
could  Jesus  learn  among  his  cotemporaries,  that  pure  and 
sublime  morality,  of  which  he  only  hath  given  us  both  pre- 
cept and  example  ?  The  greatest  wisdom  was  made  known 
amongst  the  most  bigoted  fanaticism,  and  the  simplicity  of 
the  most  heroic  virtues  did  honor  to  the  vilest  people  on 
earth.  The  death  of  Socrates  peaceably  philosophizing 
with  his  friends,  appears  the  most  agreeable  that  could  be 
wished  for ;  that  of  Jesus,  expiring  in  the  midst  of  agoni- 
zing pains,  abused,  insulted  and  accused  by  a  whole  nation, 
is  the  most  horrible  that  could  be  feared.  Socrates  in  re- 
ceiving the  cup  of  poison,  blessed  indeed  the  weeping  exe- 
cutioner who  administered  it ;  but  Jesus  in  the  midst  of 
excruciating  tortures,  prayed  for  his  merciless  tormentors. 
Yes,  if  the  hfe  and  death  of  Socrates  were  those  of  a  sage, 
the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  are  those  of  a  God.  Shall  we 
suppose  the  evangelical  history  a  mere  fiction  ?  Indeed, 
my  friend,  it  bears  not  the  marks  of  fiction :  on  the  con- 


176      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

trary,  tlie  history  of  Socrates,  wliich  nobody  presumes  to 
doubt,  is  not  so  well  attested  as  that  of  Jesus  Christ.  Such 
a  supposition,  in  fact,  only  shifts  the  difficulty  without  obvi- 
ating it ;  it  is  more  inconceivable  that  a  number  of  persons 
should  agree  to  write  such  a  history,  than  that  one  should 
furnish  the  subject  of  it.  The  Jewish  authors  were  inca- 
pable of  the  diction,  and  strangers  to  the  morality  con- 
tained in  the  gospel;  the  marks  of  whose  truth  are  so 
striking  and  inimitable,  that  the  inventor  would  be  a  more 
astonishing  character  than  the  hero." 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE   MIRACLES   OF   THE   GOSPEL. 


Miracles  of  Christianity  internal  proofs  of  divinity — Science  of  jurid- 
ical evidence  applied  to  christian  history — Writers  of  Gospel 
not  deceived — Miracles  palpable  to  senses — Abiding  in  effects — 
Infallible — No  collusion — Open  and  public — C<mtinued  for  years 
in  presence  of  friends  and  foes — Writers  of  Gospel  had  good  sense 
and  sound  understanding — Deposed  from  personal  knowledge — 
Paul  knew  with  certainty  whether  miracles  of  his  conversion  and 
those  wrought  by  himself  were  real — Writers  of  Gospel  eight  in 
number — Testimonies  equivalent  to  judicial  depositions. 

The  miracles  of  the  Gospel  have  been  generally- 
classed  among  its  external  evidences.  We  cannot 
perceive  the  propriety  of  that  classification.  Of 
the  christian  prodigies,  the  Gospel  is  the  only  pri- 
mary record ;  of  their  reality,  the  evangelical  wri- 
ters are  the  only  original  witnesses  whose  deposi- 
tions survive  to  the  present  day.  Instead  of  being 
extraneous,  its  miracles  constitute  integral  parts  of 
the  New  Testament.  The  scriptural  accounts  of 
the  sayings  of  Jesus  Christ  are  universally  ac- 
knowledged to  belong  to  the  internal  evidences  of 
Christianity ;  the  scriptural  accounts  of  the  doings 

of  Jesus  Christ  are  testimonials  alike  internal.     It 

8* 


178      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

is  the  Gospel  itself  that  proves  the  sublime  theism 
and  the  pure  ethics  taught  by  the  Prophet  of  Naza- 
reth, so  indicative  of  his  divinity ;  it  is  the  Gospel 
itself  that  also  proves  his  v^^onderful  works,  so  dem- 
onstrative that  he  was  the  Son  of  God.  The  con- 
firmations derived  from  foreign  sources  constitute 
the  external  evidences  of  our  holy  religion. 

It  would  be  irrelevant  to  our  argument  to  discuss 
the  abstract  question  whether  a  miracle  must  nec- 
essarily, and  in  all  cases,  verify  the  dogma  it  is 
designed  to  uphold.  Such  discussion  would  gra- 
tuitously bring  under  review  the  cases  of  the  Egyp- 
tian magicians,  and  of  the  sorceress  of  Endor,  with 
other  scriptural  passages  seeming  to  countenance 
the  existence  of  "lying  wonders."  It  is  enough 
for  our  purpose  that  the  sole  tendency  of  the  Gos- 
pel is  to  promote  the  glory  of  God,  the  holiness  of 
man,  the  discomfiture  of  the  powers  of  darkness. 
For  the  authentication  of  such  a  system  of  faith 
and  of  ethics,  evil  demons  would  not  work  miracles 
if  they  could.  It  would  display  a  "kingdom  di- 
vided against  itself"  If  genuine,  the  christian 
miracles  must  have  been  from  above ;  they  are  to 
be  deemed  the  broad  seals  of  heaven  to  the  Gos- 
pel's truth. 

The  science  of  evidence  is  an  important  depart- 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  179 

ment  of  human  knowledge.  It  consists  not  merely 
of  artificial  rules ;  its  foundations  are  deeply  laid 
in  the  immutable  principles  of  nature.  It  is  the 
Archimedean  machinery  of  juridical  tribunals  for 
the  development  of  truth.  On  its  due  application 
depend  property,  liberty,  and  life.  It  has  been  the 
subject  of  assiduous  culture  ever  since  the  dawn 
of  civilization.  The  improvements  of  successive 
centuries  were  consolidated  in  the  code  of  the  Ro- 
man Justinian.  That  imperial  code  has  descended 
to  modern  ages,  the  richest  treasure  of  antiquity. 
The  vigor  of  the  Celtic  mind  has  raised  the  science 
of  proof  to  a  height  of  perfection  unattained  even 
by  the  learned  efforts  of  the  former  mistress  of  the 
world.  In  the  judicatories  organized  under  the 
common  law  of  our  fatherland,  and  especially  in 
that  department  of  the  temple  of  justice  dedicated 
to  trials  by  jury,  it  forms,  perhaps,  the  noblest  sys- 
tem of  practical  wisdom  of  which  humanity  can 
boast.  When  administered  by  learned  judges  and 
honest  jurymen,  it  is  an  almost  infallible  means  of 
detecting  error  in  all  its  Protean  forms.  The  final 
triumph  of  untruth  in  tribunals  thus  constituted,  is 
a  phenomenon  scarcely  witnessed  in  a  lifetime. 
We  purpose  to  invoke  from  civil  courts  those  prin- 
ciples of  evidence  which  have  been  matured  by  the 


180  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

experience  of  thousands  of  years,  and  to  apply 
them  to  the  sacred  theme  of  the  Christian  miracles. 

When  we  open  the  New  Testament,  we  find  it 
replete  with  marvels.  "  Great  is  the  mystery  of 
godliness,"  whether  applied  to  its  doctrines  or  to  its 
facts.  The  Gospel  recounts  the  incarnation  of  the 
Son  of  God ;  the  miraculous  healing  of  all  manner 
of  diseases ;  the  resuscitation  of  the  dead,  and  the 
controlling  of  the  elements  by  a  brief  mandate^  the 
feeding  with  a  few  loaves  and  fishes  famished  hosts. 
It  speaks  of  the  preternatural  darkening  of  the  sun, 
and  rending  of  the  rocks,  and  quaking  of  the  earth ; 
it  affirms  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ ;  it  pro- 
claims the  visible  ascension  of  the  second  person  of 
the  Trinity,  and  the  stupendous  descent  of  the 
third ;  it  ascribes  to  the  early  heralds  of  the  cross 
the  faculty,  taught  them  in  no  earthly  school,  of 
speaking  strange  languages  as  their  mother  tongue. 

In  the  grand  issue  between  Christianity  and  un- 
belief, the  advocates  of  the  Gospel  confessedly  hold 
the  affirmative.  On  them  devolves  what  is  termed 
in  Latin  the  onus  prohandi,  and  in  English  the 
burden  of  proof.  As  the  events  recorded  in  the 
New  Testament  are  extraordinary,  they  require  to 
be  confirmed  by  extraordinary  evidence.  Man  is 
a  reasonable  being ;  and  the  Author  of  his  mental 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  181 

faculties  does  not  exact  his  homage  to  any  creed 
without  proof  of  its  truth.  When  the  intellect  has 
within  its  grasp  due  testimonials  that  the  creed  is 
inspired,  then,  and  not  until  then,  is  reason  bound 
to  yield  the  sceptre  to  confiding  and  unhesitating 
faith.  Let  not  the  sensitive  believer  startle  at  the 
latitude  of  these  concessions.  Pure  gold  dreads  not 
the  crucible ;  the  more  trying  the  ordeal  the  clearer 
will  be  the  demonstration  of  its  genuineness. 

We  ask  not  the  student  of  truth  to  yield  cre- 
dence to  the  christian  miracles  without  thorough 
examination.  We  ask  him  to  test  them  by  the 
sound  principles  of  evidence,  which  from  time  im- 
memorial have  been  judicially  sanctioned  by  the 
wisdom  of  the  civilized  world.  Can  he  find  a  bet- 
ter test  than  those  principles  upon  which  he  daily 
and  confidently  reposes  his  fortune,  his  liberty,  his 
life  ?  If  he  will  apply  to  the  miracles  of  the  Gospel 
this  practical  touchstone,  with  the  diligence  and 
candor  displayed  by  ordinary  jurymen  in  the  in- 
vestigation of  secular  truth,  he  will  reach  the  con- 
clusion that  they  are  the  genuine  seals  of  heaven, 
with  a  certainty  of  conviction  not  inferior  to  the 
full  assurance  wrought  by  the  demonstrations  of 
mathematics.  In  the  present  chapter,  we  purpose 
to  show  by  the  rules  of  proof,  matured  by  the  keen- 


182  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

sighted  skill  of  enlightened  self-interest,  and  grown 
gray  under  the  frost  of  ages,  that  the  evangelical 
witnesses  could  not  have  been  innocently  mistaken 
in  their  attestation  to  the  christian  signs  and  won- 
ders. In  the  next  two  chapters,  we  design  to  show 
that  they  were  not  wilful  deceivers.  From  these 
premises  clearly  established,  the  conclusion  will  be 
inevitable  that  the  Gospel  is  true.  Our  argument 
develops  itself  under  several  heads. 

First. — When  a  witness  in  a  civil  tribunal  testi- 
fies to  strange  events,  the  triers  spontaneously  in- 
quire, at  least  in  their  own  minds,  whether  the  na- 
ture and  character  of  the  events,  or  their  attending 
circumstances,  may  not  possibly  have  beguiled  the 
witness  into  innocent  mistake.  Man  is  prone  to 
illusions;  his  imagination  is  a  prolific  source  of 
error;  even  his  graver  faculties  are  not  always 
faithful  in  their  allegiance.  Let  the  student  of  the 
christian  evidences  adopt  for  himself  the  sponta- 
neous inquiry  of  the  juridical  triers,  and  rigidly 
apply  it  to  the  testimonies  of  the  evangelical  wit- 
nesses. He  will  find  that  the  possibility  of  their 
being  deceived  was  utterly  precluded  by  the  na- 
ture, character,  and  circumstances  of  the  christian 
miracles.     They  could  have  been  mistaken  in  the 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  188 

reality  of  the  supernatural  signs  and  wonders  no 
more  than  the  eye  can  be  mistaken  in  the  existence 
of  light. 

The  miracles  of  the  Gospel  appealed,  not  to  the 
imagination,  but  to  the  senses  and  the  judgment. 
Though  wrought  by  a  simple  word  or  touch,  their 
effects  were  abiding.  They  came,  indeed,  with  the 
lightning's  speed ;  but  they  passed  not  away  like 
the  lightning's  flash.  The  five  thousand  fed  by  the 
five  loaves  and  two  small  fishes  were  assured,  not 
only  by  their  sight,  but  also  by  their  appeased  hun- 
ger, that  the  miracle  was  no  delusion.  The  blind, 
the  lame,  and  the  diseased  were  restored  to  the 
vigor  of  unfaltering  health,  fearless  of  relapse.  The 
three  dead  persons,  raised  to  life  by  Jesus  Christ 
before  his  own  decease,  mingled  again  in  social  in- 
tercourse, and  remained,  perhaps  for  many  years, 
living,  moving,  speaking  prodigies,  at  which  the 
world  gazed,  and  wondered,  and  trembled. 

The  remedies  of  the  mighty  Physician  were  not 
experiments,  sometimes  successful,  oftener  failing. 
His  applications  were  sovereign  and  infallible. 
Disease  was  always  submissive  to  his  mandate ; 
never  failing  was  his  restorative  touch.  At  his 
command  death  ever  willingly  yielded  up  its  vic- 
tims.    Devils  never  refused  to  depart  at  his  bidding. 


184      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

He  had  but  to  speak  the  word,  and  the  light  of  in- 
telHgence  straightway  shed  its  gladdening  beams 
upon  the  minds  of  the  demented. 

To  suppose  collusion  between  the  great  Healer 
and  his  patients,  and  that  they  affected  to  be  dis- 
eased that  they  might  seem  to  be  cured,  would 
imply  a  conspiracy  of  thousands  without  motive  or 
object,  reaching  through  the  whole  time  and  limits 
of  his  public  ministration.  To  such  collusion 
neither  the  dead  nor  the  demented  could  have  been 
parties.  And  among  the  living  and  sane,  the  sup- 
posed confederation,  bound  together  by  no  principle 
of  cohesion,  could  not,  if  it  escaped  exposure  by  in- 
ternal treason,  have  eluded  the  scrutiny  of  foreign 
foes.  Witness  the  vigilance  with  which  the  phari- 
sees  probed  the  case  of  the  man  born  blind,  whom 
Jesus  restored  to  sight  by  anointing  his  eyes  with 
clay,  and  sending  him  to  wash  in  the  pool  of  Siloam. 
If  the  Jewish  sanhedrim  lavished  thirty  pieces  of 
silver  to  effect  the  arrest  of  the  Son  of  man,  how 
profuse  would  have  been  their  expenditure  to  secure 
his  disgraceful  detection !  Had  Iscariot  any  secret 
frauds  to  reveal,  he  might  have  become  rich  by  the 
disclosure,  without  being  driven  by  despair  to  lay 
murderous  hands  upon  himself 

The  miracles  of  Jesus  Christ  sought  not  "the 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  185 

shade  of  guilt-concealing  night,"  but  were  as  open 
and  almost  as  diffused  as  the  light  of  day.  They 
were  publicly  wrought  at  Jerusalem,  and  in  every 
city  and  village  of  Judea.  Between  forty  and  fifty 
of  them  are  named  by  the  evangelical  historians ; 
and  their  oft-repeated  allusion  to  divers  other  mir- 
acles not  named,  indicates  that  their  aggregate 
number  must  have  been  almost  countless.  They 
were  continued  for  three  years,  and  fearlessly  dis- 
played in  the  presence  of  friends  and  foes.  Of  the 
wonderful  works,  the  constituted  authorities  of  the 
land  were  the  ever  vigilant,  the  ever  hostile  super- 
visors. The  infuriated  scribes  and  pharisees  be- 
held, and  wondered,  and  reviled ;  not  daring,  in  the 
face  of  an  astonished  nation,  to  controvert  the  fact 
of  the  miracles,  they  impiously  ascribed  them  to  de- 
moniac arts. 

Secondly. — When  a  witness  in  a  court  of  justice 
testifies  to  events  peculiarly  strange  and  wonderful, 
the  questions,  whether  he  is  of  healthful  mind; 
whether  his  evidence  is  based  on  his  own  personal 
knowledge ;  and  whether  he  had  sure  means  of  ac- 
curately learning  the  certainty  of  the  events  narra- 
ted, will  pass  in  careful  review  before  the  candid, 
discreet  and  intelligent  triers.     To  the  student  of 


186       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

the  christian  evidences  v^e  commend  the  invocation 
of  these  questions,  and  their  close  and  solemn  ap- 
plication to  the  testimonies  of  the  sacred  w^itnesses. 
The  deeper  he  lays  the  foundations  of  his  faith,  the 
firmer  and  more  immovable  will  be  the  super- 
structure. ■-  : 
The  works  of  an  author  reflect  his  intellectual 
lineaments  as  the  glass  reflects  the  features  of  his 
countenance.  In  the  evangelical  works  good  sense, 
sound  understanding  and  practical  wisdom  are  pre- 
dominant elements.  They  must,  therefore,  have 
been  the  predominant  elements  in  the  mental  con- 
stitutions of  the  writers.  Infidelity,  in  affirming 
that  the  Gospel  is  a  fabrication,  ascribes  to  its 
authors  a  still  higher  intellectual  grade.  If  the 
Evangelical  Record  is  a  romance,  it  is  the  most 
wonderful  achievement  of  mortal  genius.  If  not 
inspired  by  heaven,  it  possesses  such  an  earthly  in- 
spiration as  never  breathed  forth  in  the  pages  of 
Homer  or  Shakspeare.  In  spite  of  the  opposition 
of  power  and  the  cavils  of  unbelief,  it  has  extended 
its  moral  sceptre  over  the  whole  civilized  world. 
Its  lineaments  are  all  so  godlike,  that  for  a  long 
course  of  centuries  the  best  and  the  wisest  of  man- 
kind have  clung  to  it  as  the  noblest  work  of  God, 
with  a  faith  lasting  as  Hfe,  and  brightening  even  in 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  187 

the  dying  hour.  Be  the  Gospel  a  matchless  fiction, 
or  a  glorious  reality,  it  bears  internal  demonstration 
that  its  writers  were  too  intellectual  and  clear- 
sighted to  become  themselves  the  victims  of  delu- 
sion. 

In  narrating  the  christian  miracles,  the  evangel- 
ical writers  deposed  not  from  hearsay  merely,  but 
from  their  own  personal  knowledge.  Matthew,  in- 
dicated by  the  unanimous  voice  of  christian  anti- 
quity as  the  composer  of  the  sacred  history  which 
bears  his  name,  was  one  of  the  apostolic  twelve. 
John  announces  that  he  himself  was  the  disciple  who 
leaned  on  the  bosom  of  Jesus.  We  believe  that 
Mark  and  Luke  were  of  the  chosen  seventy.  Mark 
wrote  several  years  after  Matthew.  His  work  ap- 
pears as  an  original  composition,  founded  on  his 
own  knowledge.  Had  it  been  but  an  abridgment 
of  his  predecessor,  or  the  mere  gleanings  of  hearsay, 
the  candor  of  Mark  would  have  been  likely  to  give 
some  intimation  to  that  eifect.  Why  should  he 
have  abridged  the  already  condensed  work  of  Mat- 
thew? Why  should  he  have  placed  his  hearsay 
gatherings  in  competition  with  the  personal  recol- 
lections of  an  original  apostle?  The  passion  of 
authorship  found  no  place  in  the  occupied  mind  of 
the  holy  Mark.     To  say  that  he  was  inspired  by 


188  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

the  Holy  Ghost  would  at  once  solve  the  difficulty. 
But  that  would  be  begging  the  question  at  issue 
between  infidelity  and  ourselves. 

The  same  remarks  apply  to  Luke,  who  also 
wrote  years  after  Matthew,  though  before  John. 
But  it  has  been  said  that  the  introduction  of  Luke's 
Gospel  announces  that  he  had  no  personal  knowl- 
edge of  the  events  which  he  narrates.  We  do  not 
concur  in  this  interpretation.  In  the  first  two 
verses  of  his  introduction,  he  refers  to  "many" 
who  had  "  taken  in  hand  to  set  forth  in  order"  the 
miracles  of  salvation  delivered  by  those  who  "  from 
the  beginning  were  eye-witnesses."  The  "  many" 
(Matthew  not  included)  had  doubtless  written  from 
hearsay,  and  their  writings  have  passed  into  mer- 
ited oblivion.  In  contrast  to  these  writings  based 
on  hearsay,  Luke,  in  the  third  verse,  speaks  of  his 
own  design ;  "  It  seemed  good  to  me  also,  having 
had  perfect  understanding  of  all  things  from  the 
very  first,  to  write  unto  thee  in  order,  most  excel- 
lent Theophilus."  How  could  he  have  had  a 
"  perfect  understanding  of  all  things  from  the  very 
first,"  unless  he  had  been  an  eye  and  an  ear  wit- 
ness of  them?  In  the  fourth  verse,  he  declares 
one  of  his  objects  in  writing  to  be,  that  his  friend 
might  "  know  the  certainty  of  those  things."     But 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  189 

how  could  Theophilus  know  their  certainty  from 
the  epistle  of  his  correspondent,  unless  that  cor- 
respondent had  himself  personal  knowledge  of  their 
truth  ?  When  just  after  the  ascension,  the  eleven 
disciples  selected  two  candidates  for  the  apostolic 
office,  left  vacant  by  the  treason  and  death  of  Ju- 
das, they  were  careful  to  name  persons  who  had 
been  followers  of  Jesus  Christ  even  from  the  bap- 
tism of  John,  that  one  of  them  might  be  ordained 
to  be  a  witness  with  the  original  disciples  of  his 
resurrection.*  And  was  it  not  equally  important 
that  those  who  were  to  prepare  and  publish,  for  the 
benefit  of  cotemporaries  and  posterity,  written  at- 
testations of  his  teachings  and  works,  should  have 
had  personal  acquaintance  with  them  from  the  very 
beginning  ? 

All  the  sacred  biographers  had,  we  suppose,  the 
most  ample  means  of  ascertaining  the  truth  of  the 
events  which  they  have  recorded.  Matthew  and 
John  belonged  to  the  family  of  Jesus  Christ ;  Mark 
and  Luke  had  been  followers  in  his  train,  intently 
gazing  on  his  wonderful  works.  In  the  reality  of 
those  works,  they  could  have  been  mistaken  no 
more  than  in  their  own  identity.     It  was  not  in- 

*  Acts  i.  21,  22. 


190  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

formation,  but  vision,  w^liich  taught  them  that  the 
bUnd  eyes  had  been  opened,  the  lepers  cleansed, 
the  fevers  assuaged,  the  winds  and  the  waves 
hushed,  the  devils  cast  out,  by  words  of  human 
sound  but  of  power  divine.  And  how  could  the 
evangelical  biographers  have  been  deceived  in  the 
resuscitation  of  the  widow's  son,  of  the  ruler's 
daughter,  and  of  the  brother  of  Mary  and  Martha  ? 
They  had  seen  the  inanimate  remains;  the  cold 
seal  of  death  was  not  to  be  mistaken.  They  saw 
again  the  rigid  limbs  beginning  to  move ;  the 
glazed  eye  reanimated;  the  hueless  cheek  crim- 
soned with  the  flush  of  returning  health.  They 
afterwards  sat  at  supper  with  the  restored  Lazarus, 
where  the  Jews  assembled  in  crowds  to  behold  one 
who  had  been  raised  from  the  dead. 

The  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  was  the  last  act 
in  the  drama  of  redemption.  His  disciples  had 
gazed  on  his  crucifixion ;  they  had  beheld  his  hands 
and  feet  nailed  to  the  tree ;  the  fatal  spear  had  in 
their  sight  pierced  his  side ;  they  had  witnessed  his 
interment ;  the  granite  tomb  had  been  watched  by 
a  guard  of  Roman  soldiers,  and  sealed  with  the  seal 
of  the  Jewish  sanhedrim.  Yet  on  the  third  day  he 
appeared  to  his  disciples  in  the  vigor  of  renovated 
life ;   he  showed  himself  alive  to  them  and  often 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  191 

conversed  with  them  for  forty  successive  days  ;  he 
displayed  to  them  his  wounded  hands  and  pierced 
side ;  their  eyes  saw  him,  their  ears  heard  him ; 
their  hands  handled  him ;  he  wrought  miracles  in 
their  presence ;  at  the  end  of  the  forty  days  they 
beheld  him  ascend  to  heaven,  and  a  cloud  received 
him  out  of  their  sight.  None  could  have  person- 
ated the  Crucified  with  the  hope  of  deceiving  his 
very  disciples.  His  disciples  could  have  been 
mistaken  in  their  belief  of  having  seen  him  after 
his  resurrection,  no  more  than  they  could  have 
been  mistaken  in  their  belief  of  having  seen  him 
before.  They  were  not  predisposed  to  credulity. 
Didymus  was  not  the  only  doubter ;  Jesus  himself 
reproved  their  general  unbelief  The  accuracy  of 
the  senses  of  the  eleven  was  tested  by  the  senses 
of  others ;  the  risen  Saviour  appeared  to  more  than 
five  hundred  at  one  time.  The  heathen,  Tacitus, 
unwittingly  bore  testimony  to  the  truth  of  the  res- 
urrection. For  what  else  could  have  caused  the 
faith  of  the  cross,  seemingly  interred  forever  in  the 
tomb  of  Joseph,  suddenly  to  "  burst  forth,"  and 
overspread  Judea?  The  wonderful  resuscitation 
of  the  new  religion  demonstrates  the  resuscitation 
of  its  Founder.  Had  the  apostolic  report  been 
false,   the    overwhelming    union    of    Jewish    and 


192  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

Roman  power  would  have  smothered  it  on  the 
spot. 

The  descent  of  the  third  person  of  the  Trinity- 
ranks  in  wonder  with  the  incarnation  and  resur- 
rection of  the  second.  Without  the  coming  of  the 
Comforter,  the  Gospel  would  have  been  but  a  life- 
less letter.  His  advent  and  gracious  presence  are 
rapturously  attested  by  the  sacred  writers.  The 
particular  manner  of  his  visible  descent,  is  related 
by  Luke  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Argument  is 
not  required  to  show  that  there  could  have  been  no 
mistake  in  the  reality  of  the  astounding  demonstra- 
tions at  pentecost. 

Paul,  though  converted  after  the  resurrection, 
and  doubtless  the  youngest  of  the  apostles,  was 
nevertheless  a  cotemporary  of  Jesus  Christ.  When 
Stephen  was  stoned,  a  few  months  after  the  ascen- 
sion, the  clothes  of  the  martyr  were  laid  down  "  at 
a  young  man's  feet,  whose  name  was  Saul ;"  and 
who  even  then  had  attained  sufficient  maturity  of 
age  to  be  intrusted  with  official  authority.  Bent 
on  exterminating  the  new  and  hated  sect,  the  self- 
possessed  pharisee,  on  his  way  to  Damascus,  armed 
with  letters  from  the  high  priest,  w^as  suddenly 
smitten  to  the  ground  at  mid-day,  by  a  light  above 
the  brightness  of  the  sun.     The  light  was  accom- 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  193 

panied  by  a  Voice  appealing  to  him  by  name.  The 
awful  Voice  he  twice  addressed ;  twice  the  Voice 
replied;  the  last  time  at  considerable  length.  If 
Paul  was  deceived,  the  deception  could  only  have 
been  caused  by  mental  aberration.  But  aberration 
of  the  intellect  would  not  have  produced  physical 
blindness;  and  he  of  Tarsus  was  three  days  with- 
out sight.  If  the  whole  was  but  the  complicated 
development  of  a  strange  insanity,  the  malady  must 
have  been  contagious ;  for  his  companions  saw  the 
light  and  fell  to  the  earth,  and  heard  the  Voice, 
though  they  understood  not  the  words. 

Further  corroboration  of  the  reality  of  the  won- 
derful phenomena,  is  found  in  the  independent  rev- 
elation to  Ananias.  The  saint  of  Damascus  af- 
firmed, that  the  Lord  had  appeared  to  him  in  a 
vision,  informing  him  of  the  mid-day  prodigies,  and 
sending  him  to  the  relief  of  the  sightless  penitent. 
Entering  the  house  where  Paul  was  lodged,  he  laid 
his  hands  upon  the  blind  man,  "  And  immediately 
there  fell  from  his  eyes  as  it  had  been  scales ;  and 
he  received  sight  forthwith,  and  arose  and  was 
baptized."  The  falling  scales  and  the  instanta- 
neous restoration  of  the  visual  organs  to  health, 
upon  the  touch  of  the  holy  man,  were  palpable  and 
tangible  wonders,  which  no  trick  of  fancy  or  men* 


194  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

tal  illusion  could  have  produced.  Paul  v^^as  not 
deceived.  Either  the  miracles  w^ere  real,  or  else 
the  pupil  of  Gamaliel,  and  his  companions  on  the 
way,  and  the  pious  Ananias,  were  all  banded  to- 
gether in  a  foul  conspiracy. 

Paul  claimed  that  he  himself  was  endowed  with 
the  gift  of  miracles  and  of  tongues.  Did  the  power 
to  work  signs  and  wonders  exist  in  his  "  mind's 
eye"  alone?  Was  he  deceived  when  he  thought 
that,  by  a  look,  he  had  smitten  the  sorcerer  with 
blindness  ?  Was  his  belief  that  by  a  word  he  had 
cured  the  man  lame  from  his  mother's  womb,  so 
that  he  leaped  and  walked,  mere  self-deception? 
Did  he  but  imagine  that  he  had  cast  out  the  evil 
spirit  which  tormented  the  possessed  damsel  ?  Did 
he  but  dream  that  he  had  raised  to  life  the  young 
man  fallen  down  from  the  third  story  and  taken  up 
dead  ?  Was  it  fancy  that  pictured  the  poisonous 
viper  fastened  on  his  hand  and  shaken  off  without 
harm  ?  And  his  gift  of  tongues — was  that  too  the 
mere  creation  of  a  disordered  mindi?  Was  it  in 
« thought  alone  that  he  traversed  the  ancient  world, 
preaching  to  each  nation  and  tribe,  in  its  own 
strange  dialect,  the  <'  good  tidings  of  great  joy." 

The  apostle  to  the  gentiles  was  not  a  person  to  be 
habitually  deceived.     Though  ardent,  he  was  col- 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  195 

lected ;  to  a  glowing  heart  he  united  a  clear  head. 
Brilliant  as  was  his  imagination,  it  served  as  a  wil- 
ling handmaid  to  his  intellect.  Profound  as  was 
his  learning,  it  was  controlled  by  a  dominant  in- 
fusion of  plain  and  practical  good  sense.  In  him 
were  harmoniously  united  the  man  of  the  world 
and  the  man  of  God.  Antiquity  produced  no  one 
less  likely  to  become  the  dupe  of  deception  than 
the  tent-maker  of  Corinth. 

The  apostolic  claim  to  the  possession  and  exer- 
cise of  miraculous  powers  and  to  the  gift  of 
tongues,  was  not  confined  to  Paul.  In  speaking 
without  exception  of  the  early  missionaries  of  sal- 
vation, he  himself  says,  "God  also  bearing  them 
witness  both  with  signs  and  wonders,  and  with 
divers  miracles  and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  This 
claim  to  preternatural  endowments,  unless  true; 
must  have  been  intentionally  fraudulent ;  it  could 
not  have  been  the  effect  of  innocent  delusion. 
There  can  be  no  pretence  that  the  whole  apostolic 
band  were  madmen ;  their  writings  bear  record 
demonstration  of  their  general  sanity.  * 

There  is,  indeed,  a  limited  yet  insidious  disease 
of  the  intellect,  termed  monomania,  which  consists 
in  partial  derangement  of  some  one  faculty,  or  in 
mental  aberration  upon  some  one  subject.     A  mo- 


196      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

nomaniac  might  possibly  have  imagined  for  a  time 
that  he  was  the  worker  of  miracles.  But  such  an 
hallucination  could  never  have  become  an  epi- 
demic, pervading  an  entire  class,  affecting  each 
individual  with  the  same  identical  symptoms,  and 
continuing  for  a  succession  of  years.  The  gift  of 
tongues  would  have  been  an  endowment  peculiarly 
difficult  to  be  lastingly  imagined.  A  few  experi- 
ments and  failures  would  have  been  sure  to  dis- 
solve the  illusion. 

The  christian  record  bears  no  mark  of  apostolic 
hallucination.  Its  writers,  and  the  faithful  of  whom 
they  wrote,  were  strangers  to  the  influences  of  wild 
enthusiasm ;  they  betrayed  no  indications  of  an  over- 
heated imagination ;  they  maintained  a  healthful 
tranquillity  even  where  excitement  might  have  been 
expected.  Primitive  Christianity  was  not  more  dis- 
tinguished for  its  zeal  than  for  its  equanimity.  Not 
a  fanatic  appeared  in  its  pious  groups.  The  ebulli- 
tions of  extravagant  rhapsody  find  no  countenance 
in  the  example  of  the  meek,  the  serene,  the  unim- 
f  assioned  Jesus.  Not  akin  to  religious  frenzy  was 
the  defection  of  Peter,  or  the  skepticism  of  Thomas. 
Not  symptomatic  of  a  diseased  intellect  was  the 
cool,  the  collected,  the  sublime  heroism  of  Ste- 
phen. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  197 

Thirdly. — In  estimating  the  chances  of  miscon- 
ception by  witnesses,  the  triers  in  a  court  of  judi- 
cature always  regard  their  number.  This  is  a  rule 
of  evidence  not  only  sanctioned  by  the  wisdom  of 
ages,  but  also  founded  in  the  common  principles  of 
our  nature.  Several  witnesses  are  incomparably 
less  liable  than  one  to  an  error  of  the  senses.  The 
difference  depends  not  so  much  on  the  power  of 
numbers  as  on  a  sort  of  moral  arithmetic.  The 
senses  of  one  man  may  sometimes  beguile  him; 
but  the  concurrence  of  many  in  affirming  the 
same  fact  of  which  they  have  been  eye  or  ear 
witnesses,  almost  precludes  the  practicability  of 
mistake. 

These  considerations  must  not  be  undervalued 
by  the  investigator  of  the  christian  evidences. 
There  are  eight  writers  of  the  Gospel ;  Matthew, 
Mark,  Luke,  John,  Paul,  James,  Peter,  and  Jude. 
Some  of  these  writers  enter  less  than  others  into 
the  detail  of  the  scriptural  signs  and  wonders ;  but 
even  James,  Peter,  and  Jude  virtually  affirm  the  in- 
carnation, death,  and  resurrection  of  the  Son  of 
God ;  and  these  three  events  constitute  the  triple 
foundation  of  our  faith.  To  the  christian  miracles 
in  some  stages  of  their  development,  each  of  the 
evangelical  writers  was  a  personal  witness;  and 
9* 


198      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

his  means  of  learning  the  facts  were  ample  and  in- 
fallible.    Mistake  was  impossible. 

The  testimonials  of  the  sacred  writers  have  all 
the  attributes  of  depositions,  and  may  well  receive 
that  imposing  name.  They  were  at  least  equiva- 
lent in  sanction  to  oaths  in  a  court  of  justice.  That 
which  gives  its  binding  force  to  judicial  depositions 
is  the  appeal  of  the  deponents  to  the  Searcher  of 
hearts.  The  evangelical  deponents  also  appealed 
to  the  Searcher  of  hearts ;  and  their  appeal  was 
made  under  every  circumstance  of  solemnity  that 
could  bind  the  consciences  of  responsible  beings. 
They  virtually  invoked  upon  themselves  the  bless- 
ing or  the  curse  of  God,  as  their  asseverations  were 
true  or  false.  If  the  scriptural  depositions  are  false, 
the  writers  were  guilty  of  moral  perjury,  unequalled 
in  turpitude  by  any  legal  perjury  ever  perpetrated 
on  earth.  They  deliberately  insulted  the  Majesty 
of  heaven ;  and  have  deceived,  not  an  individual 
only,  but  a  world ! 

Under  the  juridical  systems  founded  on  the  com- 
mon law,  one  witness  is  generally  sufficient  to  sus- 
tain an  affirmative.  Fortunes  are  daily  lost  and 
gained,  and  lives  forfeited  or  saved,  upon  the 
strength  of  a  single  oath.  The  Jewish  code  re- 
quired  two   affirmants ;   but  two  affirmants  fully 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  199 

satisfied  even  the  rigor  of  the  Mosaic  institution. 
The  Gospel  has  benignly  afforded  to  the  feeble  faith 
of  mortals  the  benefit  of  eight  original  and  concur- 
ring witnesses.  This  feature  in  its  authentication 
should  be  profoundly  estimated  by  the  honest  stu- 
dent of  the  christian  proofs.  Who,  sitting  in  the 
seat  of  a  juryman,  would  gratuitously  take  upon 
himself  the  responsibility  of  discrediting  eight  con- 
curring and  uncontradicted  witnesses,  swearing 
positively  to  things  which  their  own  eyes  had  seen 
or  their  own  ears  heard  ? 

Man  would  be  an  isolated  and  miserable  being  if 
he  could  repose  no  confidence  in  testimony,  judi- 
cial and  extrajudicial.  Faith  in  human  testimony 
is  the  solace  of  life,  the  cement  of  commerce,  the 
gravitating  principle  which  binds  together  the  moral 
elements  of  the  world.  Burst  it  asunder  and  sub- 
stitute in  its  stead  the  distrust  of  each  in  the  assev- 
erations of  all,  and  our  race  must  relapse  into  the 
original  chaos  from  whence  it  was  redeemed  by  the 
consolidations  of  society.  The  light  of  day  might 
as  well  be  extinguished  as  faith  in  human  testimony. 
Universal  darkness  would  not  be  more  appalling 
than  the  universal  domination  of  heartless,  cheer- 
less skepticism. 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE   SAME   SUBJECT   CONTINUED. 


"Writers  of  Gospel  not  deceivers — Truth  has  a  manner  of  its  o\m — 
Directness,  simplicity,  and  ingenuousness  of  evangelical  witnesses 
— Examples  of  their  candor — Pureness  of  their  moral  character 
— Proved  by  their  writings — By  history — By  the  confessions  of 
infidels — Had  not  primitive  christians  been  of  pure  character,  new 
faith  would  not  have  outlived  its  Founder — Writers  of  Gospel 
consistent  in  narratives,  doctrines,  and  precepts,  without  studied 
uniformity. 

Having  shown  in  the  last  chapter,  that  the  wri- 
ters of  the  Gospel  could  not  have  been  innocently 
deceived  in  the  christian  miracles,  we  now  proceed 
to  show  that  they  were  not  wilful  deceivers.  For 
this  object  we  shall,  as  in  the  last  chapter,  resort  to 
those  juridical  balances,  whose  accuracy  in  weigh- 
ing testimony  has  been  tested  by  the  experience  of 
ages.  It  it  be  true  that  sometimes  "the  children 
of  this  world  are  in  their  generation  wiser  than  the 
children  of  light,"*  and  if  it  be  also  true  that  the 
judicial  generations  have  from  the  beginning  lived 
and  moved,  and  had  their  being  in  cultivating  and 

*  Luke  xvi.  8. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  201 

perfecting  the  science  of  evidence,  let  "the  chil- 
dren of  light"  deign  to  receive,  in  this  particular 
department,  some  practical  lessons  from  "  the  chil- 
dren of  this  world." 

First. — When  witnesses,  in  a  secular  court,  tes- 
tify to  improbable  events,  the  triers  steadfastly 
mark  their  manner  as  a  criterion  of  their  honesty. 
Truth  has  a  manner  of  its  own,  not  easy  to  be  de- 
scribed, but  instinctively  felt.  Successfully  to 
counterfeit  the  truthful  manner,  is  scarcely  within 
the  compass  of  human  art.  It  is,  indeed,  declared 
that  sometimes  "  Satan  himself  is  transformed  into 
an  angel  of  light."  But  the  transformation  requires 
all  the  adroitness  of  the  arch-fiend.  A  work  of  fic- 
tion, though  drawn  by  the  ablest  of  pens,  may  be 
distinguished  by  the  critical  and  experienced  from 
a  narrative  of  facts.  Paintings,  however  perfect, 
are  not  nature.  The  Grecian  pencil  beguiled 
birds ;  it  aspired  not  to  beguile  sagacious  men. 

Let  the  student  of  the  christian  evidences  scru- 
tinize profoundly  the  manner  of  the  sacred  deposi- 
tions. Among  the  prominent  badges  of  the  truth- 
ful manner,  are  directness,  simplicity,  and  ingenu- 
ousness. These  badges  are  engraved  on  every 
page  of  the  Gospel  testimonials.  Take,  for  in- 
9* 


202      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

Stance,  the  four  histories  of  our  Lord.  The  tale 
of  the  Hsping  child,  to  whom  deceit  is  a  stranger 
even  in  name,  is  not  more  direct,  simple,  and  in- 
genuous, than  the  narratives  of  Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke,  and  John.  They  bear  intrinsic  marks  of 
being  the  impersonation  of  verity; — not  its  sem- 
blance chiselled  out  by  the  artist,  but  its  original, 
breathing,  speaking  reality.  If  they  are  fabulous, 
the  unlettered  Galileans  possessed  a  power  of  coun- 
terfeiting truth  unequalled  in  the  annals  of  the  hu- 
man mind. 

Take,  as  another  example,  the  defences  of  Paul 
before  the  Roman  governors.  What  was  it  which 
made  Felix  tremble  in  the  presence  of  his  helpless 
prisoner  ?  What  was  it  that  drew  forth  the  excla- 
mation from  Festus,  "  Paul,  thou  art  beside  thyself; 
much  learning  doth  make  thee  mad?"  What  was 
it  that  almost  persuaded  Agrippa  to  be  a  christian  ? 
Fiction  never  developed  such  scenes;  none  such 
are  portrayed  in  the  pages  of  poetic  lore.  Paul 
was  a  friendless  stranger;  humble,  penniless,  de- 
spised, chained.  Yet  truth  had  nerved  his  heart 
with  her  potency ;  clothed  him  in  her  simple,  ma- 
jestic robes ;  imparted  to  him  her  own  peculiar,  in- 
effable, overpowering,  godlike  manner.  No  wonder 
that  the  licentious  Felix  trembled ;  that  the  haughty 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  203 

king  was  shaken ;  that  the  infidel  Festus  thought 
the  speaker  mad.  The  best  antidote  against  un- 
belief is  the  study  of  the  evangelical  depositions. 
Had  Rousseau  read  them  with  candor  and  humil- 
ity, he  might  have  been  healed  of  his  morbid  skep- 
ticism. "Search  the  Scriptures,"  is  the  counsel 
of  him  who  spoke  as  never  man  spoke.  It  was  the 
prescription  for  the  heart  by  the  great  Physician 
who  made  it,  and  knew  all  its  maladies  and  their 
cures. 

Artlessness  is  the  garb  of  truth.  Fiction,  if  it 
would  pass  for  verity,  must  counterfeit  that  garb. 
Nor  could  the  disguise  be  long  concealed.  Be- 
tween the  simulated  and  the  natural,  the  discerning 
eye  will  soon  discover  the  distinction.  Nothing 
can  surpass  in.  genuine  artlessness  the  evangelical 
writers.  They  employed  no  stratagem  to  gain 
credence.  The  thought  of  being  disbelieved  seems 
not  to  have  entered  their  simple  imaginations. 
Overwhelmed  themselves  by  the  absorbing  truth 
of  their  story,  they  dreamed  not  that  its  fidelity 
would  be  questioned.  They  rehearsed  astounding 
miracles  without  any  expression  of  astonishment  or 
effort  to  excite  astonishment  in  others.  They  re- 
counted the  signs  and  wonders  as  the  known  and 
acknowledged  prodigies  of  the  new  religion,  with- 


204  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

out  thinking  any  more  of  using  artifice  in  the  nar- 
ration, than  the  American  geographer  would  think 
of  using  artifice  in  describing  the  stupendous  falls 
of  Niagara.  They  proclaimed  the  descent  and  in- 
carnation of  the  Son  of  God ;  and  deemed  his 
mighty  works  but  the  appropriate  accompaniments 
of  his  advent.  Sincerity  is  stamped  on  every  page 
of  the  Gospel.  Its  naturalness  is  no  more  simulated 
than  the  blue  of  the  skies. 

Secondly. — Juridical  triers  look  for  candor  in  the 
witnesses  as  a  test  of  their  honesty.  But  they 
sometimes  look  in  vain.  Deponents  who  would 
recoil  from  perjury,  often  fail  in  impartiality ;  un- 
willing to  utter  a  direct  falsehood,  they  nevertheless 
disguise  the  truth  by  deceptive  coloring ;  seduced 
by  their  partialities  and  prejudices,  they  degenerate 
into  partisans ;  their  memories  become  flexible  and 
accommodating,  retentive  of  facts  that  strengthen 
the  cause  espoused  by  them,  and  oblivious  of  cir- 
cumstances that  would  weaken  it.  Man  is  by  na- 
ture a  one-sided  being.  Partial  to  his  friends  and 
unjust  to  his  foes,  he  is,  without  the  influence  of 
grace,  a  stranger  to  pure  ingenuousness.  Even 
classic  history  rises  not  above  the  bias  of  nation- 
ality.    Where  is  the  secular  annalist  to  be  found, 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  205 

who  has  done  the  same  ample  justice  to  hostile 
countries  as  to  his  own  native  land  ?  Viewed  at 
one  time  in  the  mirror  of  French,  and  at  another 
in  the  mirror  of  English  history,  how  different  do 
the  events  of  modern  times  appear ! 

Lack  of  candor  always  impairs,  and  often  de- 
stroys the  testimony  of  an  affirmant  in  a  court  of 
justice.  But  if,  irrespective  of  the  contending  par- 
ties, and  unsparing  even  of  his  own  errors  and 
faults,  the  witness  testifies  with  unsuUied  and  mag- 
nanimous impartiality,  the  jury,  though  they  may 
deem  him  mistaken,  never  believe  him  a  wilful  per- 
verter  of  the  truth.  They  may  distrust  his  accu- 
racy, but  they  welcome  him  to  their  hearts  as  an 
honest  man. 

Conscious  of  the  deep-rooted  biases  of  our  com- 
mon nature,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  they  are 
regarded  by  juridical  triers,  let  the  explorer  of  the 
christian  evidences  contemplate  and  admire  the 
matchless  candor  that  distinguishes  the  pages  of  the 
Gospel.  Uninspired  biographers,  if  partial  to  the 
personage  they  portray,  always  incline  to  exaggerate, 
or  at  least  to  embellish  his  virtues.  Upon  their 
adored  Master,  who  had  redeemed  them  with  his 
own  blood,  the  evangelical  biographers  bestowed 
not  a  sentence  of  elaborated  eulogy.      With  the 


206  .  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

most  unaspiring  simplicity  they  reported  his  say- 
ings, doings,  sufferings,  and  death,  and  left  the  un 
varnished  narrative  to  speak  for  itself  Toward  his 
persecutors  and  murderers,  they  displayed  no  vin- 
dictive hostility.  Fruitful  as  was  the  theme  for  in- 
censed vituperation,  the  disciples  of  the  meek  and 
merciful  Jesus  forbore.  They  remembered  that 
their  dying  Lord  had  said,  "  Father,  forgive  them, 
for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  They  stated 
with  calm  serenity  his  arrest,  trial,  and  crucifixion, 
with  the  mockings,  and  scourgings,  and  spittings, 
but  without  any  intermixture  of  those  indignant 
epithets  from  which  unsanctified  humanity  could 
not  have  refrained. 

The  writers  of  the  Gospel  were  themselves 
apostles,  and  thus  interested  in  the  exaltation  of  the 
apostolic  character.  Yet  they  cast  no  veil  over 
the  delinquencies  of  the  primitive  disciples.  The 
high-reaching  ambition  of  the  sons  of  Zebedee  ;  the 
unfaithfulness  of  the  self-confident  Peter ;  the  de- 
sertion of  the  whole  apostolic  band  when  their  aid 
and  sympathies  seemed  most  needful ;  the  pertina- 
cious skepticism  of  Thomas,  are  all  detailed  with- 
out hesitancy  or  extenuation.  Such  details  were 
prompted  by  the  same  ingenuous  candor  that  re- 
corded the  aberrations  and  crimes  of  the  Old  Testa- 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  207 

ment  saints.  Had  the  evangelical  narratives  been 
creations  of  fancy,  Judas  might  not  have  figured  as 
a  chief  actor  in  the  fabulous  drama.  That  the  om- 
niscient should  have  fostered  a  traitor  in  his  bosom, 
has  ever  been  a  mote  in  the  diseased  eye  of  infidel 
casuistry. 

In  the  immediate  biography  of  Jesus  Christ,  pas- 
sages are  to  be  found,  which  artful  impostors  might 
have  chosen  to  avoid  in  a  work  of  fiction,  arroga- 
ting for  itself  the  character  of  truth.  His  intense 
agony  in  the  garden,  sweating  "  as  it  were  great 
drops  of  blood  falling  down  to  the  ground ;"  his 
fervent,  thrice-repeated  supplication,  "  O  my  Father, 
if  it  be  possible  let  this  cup  pass  from  me ;"  and  the 
descent  of  the  strengthening  envoy  from  -the  court 
of  heaven,  might,  to  the  cavilling  mind,  seem,  per- 
haps, to  betoken  a  faltering  of  purpose  in  the  incar- 
nate Deity,  which  an  author  of  romance  would  not 
willingly  impute  to  its  hero.  Skilful  fabulists 
mar  not  their  works  with  unexplained  mysteries. 
In  delineations  of  the  imagination,  mysteries  indeed 
often  appear;  but  they  come  like  meteors  to  thrill 
and  dazzle  for  awhile,  and  then  are  made  to  pass 
away  under  the  plastic  touch  of  ingenious  solution. 
Adroit  authors  of  fiction  are  not  wont  to  leave  be- 
hind them  unsolved  mysteries  to  prey  upon  the 


208  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

unsatisfied  imagination.  It  was  not  the  fabulous 
pen,  but  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  that  has  in  his  inscru- 
table wisdom  engraved  on  the  everlasting  record  of 
the  Gospel  the  unfathomed  and  unfathomable  won- 
ders of  Gethsemane.  The  candor  of  the  evangel- 
ical witnesses  is  infallible  proof  of  their  honesty. 

Thirdly. — When  the  improbability  of  testimony 
justly  exposes  it  to  peculiarly  rigid  criticism,  the 
juridical  triers,  still  loath  to  cast  upon  a  fellow- 
creature  the  imputation  of  corrupt  false  swearing, 
turn  for  relief  to  the  moral  character  of  the  witness. 
Truthful  is  the  apothegm  of  the  wisest  of  men,  "  A 
good  name  is  rather  to  be  chosen  than  great  riches." 
It  is  a  peerless  gem  in  prosperity,  and  in  adversity 
it  is  "  a  friend  that  sticketh  closer  than  a  brother." 
That  a  liar  is  scarcely  to  be  believed  though  he 
speaks  the  truth ;  and  that  a  witness  of  unsullied 
character  is  not  presumed  to  be  perjured  though  he 
testifies  to  facts  in  themselves  improbable,  are 
suggestions  of  common  sense  sanctioned  by  muni- 
cipal law.  A  good  name  derives  its  tutelar  charm 
from  its  being  the  outward  demonstration  of  in- 
dwelling virtue.  Virtue  is  the  substance  of  which 
a  good   name  is  the   faithful  shadow.     If  by  the 

strangeness  of  his  evidence,  or  the  cogency  of  op- 
8 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  209 

posing  proofs,  doubt  is  for  the  moment  cast  upon 
the  integrity  of  an  honest  witness,  he  may  triumph- 
antly dispel  that  doubt  by  invoking  plenary  testi- 
monials to  his  unspotted  reputation.  From  the 
demonstration  of  his  pure  fame  the  jury  justly  infer 
the  rectitude  of  his  moral  principles ;  and  they  well 
conclude  that  virtue,  though  she  may  have  often 
mistaken  the  facts  to  which  she  deposed,  never  wit- 
tingly committed  the  crime  of  wilful  and  deliberate 
perjury. 

The  depositions  of  the  evangelical  witnesses 
were,  as  we  have  seen,  equivalent  in  their  sanction 
to  oaths  in  a  court  of  justice.  In  judging  whether, 
in  their  wonderful  narratives,  the  deponents  were 
wilful  deceivers,  the  student  of  the  christian  evi- 
dences may  derive  unspeakable  assistance  from  a 
close  view  of  their  moral  character.  Their  virtues 
are  seen  in  their  works  as  in  a  glass.  Their  writ- 
ings are  the  faithful  mirror  of  their  minds.  The 
Gospel  could  not  have  been  composed  by  bad  men, 
any  more  than  the  turbid  and  poisonous  fountain 
can  send  forth  clear  and  wholesome  streams.  The 
impious  or  the  vicious  could  have  been  its  authors 
no  more  than  the  African  can  change  his  inde- 
structible hue.  Its  theism  and  its  ethics,  so  meek, 
so  holy,  so  sublime,  so  godlike,  stand  far  as  the 


210  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

over-arching  heavens  above  the  reachings  of  com- 
bined profligates.  They  could  have  infused  into 
the  Gospel  its  moral  and  spiritual  colorings,  so 
pure,  so  uplifting,  so  various,  so  harmonious,  so 
distinct,  and  yet  so  commingled  vyrith  each  other, 
no  more  than  they  could  have  spoken  into  exist- 
ence the  tints  of  the  rainbow^. 

But  the  moral  character  of  the  evangelical  wit- 
nesses has  other  demonstrations  beside  their  writ- 
ings. The  unanimous  voice  of  christian  antiquity, 
from  its  primitive  epoch,  proclaimed  their  match- 
less virtues.  General  report  is  the  method  of 
establishing  character  immemorially  practised  in 
courts  of  judicature.  The  reputation  of  persons 
living  in  early  times,  is  proved  by  ancient  writings. 
How  else  could  we  have  learned  the  virtues  of 
Socrates,  or  the  infamy  of  Nero  ?  The  cotem- 
poraries  of  the  apostles  would  not  have  combined 
to  clothe  them  in  a  reputation  not  deserved ;  arid 
had  such  a  combination  existed,  it  must  have  been 
detected  and  exposed  by  generations  immediately 
succeeding. 

The  Jews  stood  sentinels  over  the  christian 
church.  Had  there  been  a  stain  on  the  character 
of  the  primitive  disciples,  Jewish  malignity  would 
have  proclaimed  it  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  211 

If  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  had  wrung  from  Isca- 
riot  any  revelation  impugning  the  integrity  of  his 
Master,  or  of  his  brethren,  the  high  priests  and 
scribes  and  pharisees  would  have  given  it  a  circu- 
lation and  perpetuity  wide  and  lasting  as  the  He- 
brew race.  Josephus  wrote  about  sixty  years 
after  the  ascension.  The  christian  Scriptures  had 
been  recently  published,  and  constituted  the  won- 
der of  the  world.  Had  blemishes  been  discovered 
in  the  apostolic  character,  they  must  have  affected 
the  credibility  of  the  new  religion ;  and  the  vigi- 
lant Hebrew  historian  would  have  grasped  and 
spread  them  with  exulting  avidity.  About  the  year 
one  hundred  and  eighty,  the  rabbi  Judah,  as  we 
have  seen,  compiled  and  published  the  Mishna, 
consisting  of  the  Hebrew  traditions.  Had  he  been 
able  to  find  in  the  repositories  of  Jewish  calumny, 
a  single  report  tainting  the  purity  of  the  apostolic 
name,  the  learned  and  rancorous  Israelite  would 
not  have  been  speechless  upon  the  exciting  and 
absorbing  theme  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Roman  Pliny,  in  his  official  letter  to  his  im- 
perial master,  written  at  the  beginning  of  the  sec- 
ond century,  was  obliged  to  admit  the  morality  of 
the  primitive  beUevers,  and  that  the  torture  had 
drawn  nothing  from  them  except  the  assurance 


212  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

that,  far  from  being  engaged  in  any  unlawful  con- 
spiracy, they  were  bound  by  a  solemn  oath  to  ab- 
stain from  the  commission  of  those  crimes  which 
disturb  the  private  or  pubHc  peace  of  society; 
from  theft,  robbery,  adultery,  perjury,  and  fraud. 
And  even  the  infidel  historian  of  the  "  Decline  and 
Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,^'  has  in  modern  times 
assigned  the  virtues  of  the  first  christians  as  one  of 
the  five  causes  of  the  wonderful  diffusion  of  the 
Gospel. 

Had  the  original  christian  witnesses  been  of  sus- 
picious reputation,  the  new  faith  would  not  have 
been  likely  to  outlive  its  Founder.  It  was  needful 
that  its  transcendent  excellence  should  be  bodied 
forth  in  action  as  well  as  in  writing.  Its  miracles 
were  not  more  conducive  to  its  dissemination  than 
the  immaculate  character  of  its  primitive  profes- 
sors. The  holy  lives  and  the  exulting  deaths  of 
the  early  believers,  were  appeals  to  the  infidel 
world,  perhaps  more  affecting  and  resistless  than 
the  curing  of  the  sick  by  a  touch,  or  the  raising  of 
the  dead  by  a  word.  The  electric  spread  of  the 
Gospel  is  a  monument  to  the  virtues  of  its  primeval 
witnesses,  palpable  and  lasting  as  the  perpetual  hills. 

Fourthly. — Where  a  plurality  of  witnesses  are 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  213 

invoked  to  sustain  the  same  facts,  the  triers  in  a 
court  of  justice  studiously  examine  whether  they 
agree  with  themselves  and  with  each  other.  Fal- 
sity in  a  protracted  narrative,  is  generally  inconsist- 
ent with  itself;  and,  if  several  witnesses  combine 
in  a  scheme  of  deception,  they  seldom  fail  of  com- 
ing into  collision  with  themselves  or  their  associ- 
ates. Consistency  is  a  characteristic  of  truth  diffi- 
cult for  falsehood  to  imitate ;  especially  where  the 
imitation  is  to  be  effected  by  more  than  one.  Not 
even  the  gold  of  the  Jewish  council  could  make  the 
false  witnesses  against  Jesus  Christ  agree  together.* 
But  want  of  harmony  in  witnesses  called  to  sup- 
port the  same  side,  is  not  more  fatal  to  their  credi- 
bility than  too  close  a  resemblance.  A  stereotyped 
accordance  between  several  narrators  argues  con- 
spiracy and  drilling.  Men  differ  in  their  perceptions, 
in  their  memories,  in  their  mode  of  presenting 
truths,  as  much  as  in  their  outward  forms.  In  out- 
ward form  there  may  not  be  two  of  exact  similitude 
in  the  grand  and  final  assemblage  of  human  kind. 
And  why  should  mental  sameness  be  expected  any 
more  than  corporeal  ?  Truth  never  came  from 
different  lips  in  a  long  and  unconcerted  narrative, 


*  Mark  si  v.  56. 


-^ 


214  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

without  some  slight  variation  in  its  shades.  Iden- 
tity would  imply  that  it  had  been  "  learned  and 
conned  by  rote." 

The  investigator  of  the  christian  evidences  will 
find  in  the  Gospel  depositions  no  studied  uniformity, 
and  no  discrepancy  incompatible  with  their  common 
verity.  The  eight  witnesses  to  the  New  Testament 
manifestly  wrote  without  concert;  they  have  no 
artificial  sameness  of  style,  narrative,  or  doctrine. 
Their  ostensible  disagreements  are  often  startling  to 
the  superficial  observer,  and  have  furnished  some 
of  the  most  formidable  weapons  ever  wielded  by  in- 
fidelity against  the  faith  of  the  cross.  Such  im- 
pediments to  prompt  belief  would  not  have  been 
infused  into  their  writings  by  an  adroit  band  of 
fraudulent  conspirators.  But  the  occasional  sem- 
blance of  inconsistency  in  the  sacred  witnesses  has 
been  explained  by  the  labors  of  pious  criticism ;  and 
the  harmony  of  the  Gospel  is  now  as  clearly  dem- 
onstrated as  the  harmony  of  the  spheres. 


■H 


CHAPTER  XL 


THE   SAME   SUBJECT   CONTINUED. 


Writers  of  Gospel  had  no  motive  to  deceive — Not  moved  by  re- 
venge— Or  prejudice — Or  hope  of  temporal  emolument — Or 
desire  to  gain  fame  by  tales  of  wonder — Incurred  by  their  testi- 
mony certain  obloquy,  privations  and  sufferings,  and  probable 
torture  and  martyrdom — Conditions  of  discipleship  foretold  from 
beginning — Martyrdom,  though  not  always  proving  orthodoxy, 
proves  sincerity  of  victims. 

It  is  in  the  detection  of  motive  that  the  science 
of  juridical  evidence  displays  its  utmost  prowess. 
When  in  a  court  of  justice,  testimony  is  loaded  with 
intrinsic  improbability,  and  when  the  facts  utterly 
exclude  the  supposition  of  unintentional  mistake  or 
mental  hallucination,  so  that  the  triers  have  no 
alternative  but  to  believe  the  witness  true,  or  else 
to  believe  him  perjured ;  then  it  is  that  the  juridical 
science  of  evidence  comes  to  their  aid  and  enables 
them  to  solve  the  problem  of  innocence  or  guilt  with 
almost  infallible  certainty  by  probing  "  the  thoughts 
and  intents  of  the  heart.''  Has  any  sinister  motive 
led  the  witness  astray  ?  Was  he  stimulated  by  re- 
venge or  prejudice?      Was   he  beguiled  by  the 


216  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

hope  of  gain,  direct  or  consequential?  Was  he 
urged  onward  by  ambitious  promptings  ?  Was  his 
astonishing  testimony  induced  by  the  thirst  of  dis- 
tinction ? 

These  are  inquiries  to  which  the  minds  of  the 
startled  triers  will  anxiously  address  themselves. 
And  if  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  evolved,  per- 
haps, by  the  pressing  machinery  of  questioning  and 
cross-questioning,  return  to  each  of  these  inquiries 
a  negative  response,  full  and  clear  as  the  solar  rays ; 
and  if  furthermore  it  should  appear  beyond  perad- 
venture  that  the  witness  by  testifying  incurred  in- 
evitable obloquy,  privations  and  suffering,  and  im- 
minent jeopardy  of  imprisonment,  torture  and 
martyrdom,  the  triers  could  not,  because  he  testified 
to  facts  new  and  strange  to  their  limited  experience, 
pronounce  him  guilty  of  perjury,  without  violating 
their  own  official  oaths  which  bind  them  to  decide 
according  to  the  evidence.  The  difficulty  of  dis- 
believing the  testimony  would  be  immeasurably  en- 
hanced if  it  should  be  confirmed  by  seven  other 
independent  witnesses  testifying,  like  the  first,  with- 
out liability  to  impeachment  of  motive,  and  like  him, 
incurring  by  the  very  act  of  their  asseveration  sure 
obloquy,  privations,  and  suffering,  and  probable  im- 
prisonment, torture,  and  martyrdom. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  217 

Let  the  tests  of  motive,  so  efficient  in  the  jurid- 
ical science  of  evidence,  be  invoked  into  the 
christian  service,  and  appHed  in  all  their  power  to 
the  eight  evangelical  witnesses. 

First. — The  writers  of  the  Gospel  were  not  in- 
stigated by  revenge  or  prejudice ;  nor  were  they 
moved  by  the  hope  of  temporal  gain.  At  the  time 
of  their  conversion,  the  peasants  of  Judea  were 
strangers  to  the  heathen  world.  Neither  against 
polytheism,  nor  the  faith  of  their  mother-land,  had 
they  any  vengeance  to  wreak.  To  the  Mosaic  in- 
stitutions and  the  traditions  of  the  elders,  they  were 
attached  by  the  ardent  prepossessions  of  childhood. 
Paul  was  "a  pharisee,  the  son  of  a  pharisee," 
brought  up  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel. 

Nor  were  the  evangelical  witnesses  beguiled  by 
the  expectation  of  temporal  emolument.  They  had 
plighted  their  allegiance  to  a  King  whose  natal 
palace  was  a  stable,  whose  throne  was  a  cross, 
whose  crown  was  of  thorns,  who  declared  of  him- 
self "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,"  and  whose 
only  resting-place  on  earth  was  a  stranger's  grave. 
What  temporal  gain  could  they  expect  from  follow- 
ing an  indigent  Preacher  of  righteousness,  who,  in 
this  vast  globe,  had  not  "  where  to  lay  his  head  ?" 
10 


218  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

The  apostles  themselves  lived  and  died  in  abject 
poverty,  meekly  and  contentedly  working  with 
their  own  hands. 

Secondly. — The  writers  of  the  Gospel  were  not 
stimulated  by  a  thirst  of  worldly  renown.  It  is  true 
that  the  love  of  fame  is  an  active  passion  of  the 
human  soul.  For  the  love  of  fame  the  poet  has 
sung,  the  philosopher  toiled,  the  warrior  dared  the 
utmost  perils  of  "  the  imminent  deadly  breach." 
But  the  evangelical  witnesses  knew  from  the  be- 
ginning that  their  earthly  portion  would  be  obloquy, 
enduring  as  life.  How  could  the  disciples  hope  to 
escape  those  poisoned  calumnies  which  had  encom- 
passed their  Lord  from  the  waves  of  Jordan  to  the 
tomb  of  Joseph  ? 

The  apostles  have,  indeed,  succeeded  to  an  in- 
heritance of  posthumous  renown  immeasurably  sur- 
passing that  of  any  martial  conqueror.  But  con- 
scious impostors  could  not  have  anticipated  such  a 
consummation.  The  disciples  had  beheld  their 
Master  betrayed  and  arrested ;  they  had  deserted 
him  and  fled ;  hovering  round  the  summit  of  Cal- 
vary they  had  seen  him  crucified  between  two 
thieves.  Nothing  but  his  resurrection  could  have 
resuscitated  the  hopes  of  his  discomfited  followers. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  219 

Had  not  Jesus  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  the 
christian  system  must  have  been  buried  forever  in 
the  sepulchre  of  the  Arithmathean.  His  rising  on 
the  third  day  was  the  seal  of  heaven  to  the  truth  of 
his  religion.  Uplifted  by  the  certainty  of  their 
Lord's  resurrection,  the  sure  precursor  of  their  own, 
the  apostolic  witnesses  surveyed  the  vista  of  time 
through  the  telescope  of  faith.  They  beheld  the 
spread  of  the  everlasting  Gospel,  and,  perhaps, 
caught  glimpses  of  their  own  terrestrial  celebrity 
ages  after  their  decease.  By  the  same  telescope  of 
faith  they  gazed  upward  through  the  opening 
heavens,  and  saw  their  names  "written  in  the 
Lamb's  book  of  life."  And  with  such  seraphic 
visions  before  them,  how  insignificant  must  have 
seemed  the  proudest  entries  on  the  scroll  of  mortal 
fame !  It  was  not  for  the  bubble  of  posthumous 
applause,  but  for  the  unfading  joys  prepared  for 
them  at  God's  right  hand,  that,  like  their  Master, 
the  apostles  "endured  the  cross,  despising  the 
shame."* 

Thirdly. — The  writers  of  the  Gospel  were  not 
prompted  to  their  perilous  enterprise  by  a  morbid 

*  Hebrews  xii.  2. 


220  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

passion  to  astonish  the  world  with  tales  of  won- 
der. The  marvels  of  redeeming  love  surpass  the 
darings  of  the  boldest  romance.  Fiction  would 
not  have  attempted  to  body  forth  the  incarnation 
of  the  Creator  of  the  universe ;  his  birth  in  a  man- 
ger ;  his  sojourn  on  earth  for  more  than  the  third 
of  what  we  term  a  century ;  his  abject  penury ;  his 
sweat  of  labor  in  the  workshop  of  the  carpenter ; 
his  sweat  of  blood  in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane ; 
his  washing  of  the  feet  of  his  betraying  and  desert- 
ing disciples;  the  scoffings,  scourgings,  and  spit- 
tings that  he  so  meekly  endured;  his  crucifixion 
between  malefactors ;  his  prayer  for  his  murderers. 
We  admit  that  the  passion  of  recounting  and  lis- 
tening to  marvellous  relations,  is  a  deep-seated 
principle  of  our  common  nature.  It  is  developed 
even  in  the  nurseries  of  childhood.  But  no  writer 
of  romance,  however  strong  may  be  its  intrinsic 
fascinations,  would  willingly  pursue  his  vocation, 
under  the  certainty  that  it  must  subject  him  to  pri- 
vation, want,  and  infamy,  from  which  he  could  hope 
for  no  respite,  save  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  grave. 

Fourthly. — The  contumely,  persecutions,  and  suf- 
ferings which  the  Gospel  entailed  on  its  early  pro- 
mulgators, are  unexampled  in  the  annals  of  human 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  221 

woe.  Tacitus,  as  we  have  seen,  declared  of  the 
primitive  christians,  that  they  were  "  branded  with 
deserved  infamy,"  "for  their  hatred  of  human 
kind."  Paul  affirmed  of  himself  and  his  apostolic 
brethren,  "  We  are  made  as  the  filth  of  the  earth, 
and  are  the  off*scouring  of  all  things  unto  this  day."* 
The  persecutions  and  sufferings  of  the  christians 
of  the  first  three  centuries,  are  written  on  the  pages 
of  ecclesiastical  and  secular  history,  in  characters 
of  blood.  Their  persecutions  and  sufferings  were 
predicted  by  the  Gospel  itself.  Its  Founder  de- 
coyed none  into  his  service  by  flattering  assurances 
never  to  be  realized ;  to  his  followers  he  expHcitly 
foretold  the  terms  of  apostleship.  "  But  beware  of 
men :  for  they  will  deliver  you  up  to  councils ;  and 
they  will  scourge  you  in  their  synagogues ;  and  ye 
shall  be  brought  before  governors  and  kings  for  my 
sake,  for  a  testimony  against  them  and  the  gen- 
tiles." "  And  ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  men  for  my 
name's  sake."  "  It  is  enough  for  the  disciple  that 
he  be  as  his  master,  and  the  servant  as  his  lord ; 
if  they  have  called  the  master  of  the  house  Beelze- 
bub, how  much  more  shall  they  call  them  of  his 
household  ?"     And  even  in  his  last  most  pathetic 

*  1  Corinth,  iv.  13. 


222  THE  GOSPEL    ITS    OWN  ADVOCATE. 

interview  with  his  chosen  disciples,  he  tells  them, 
broken-hearted  as  they  were,  "  If  the  world  hate 
you,  ye  know  that  it  hated  me  before  it  hated  you. 
If  you  were  of  the  world,  the  world  would  love  his 
own ;  but  because  ye  are  not  of  the  world,  but  I 
have  chosen  you  out  of  the  world,  therefore  the 
world  hateth  you.  Remember  the  word  that  I  said 
unto  you,  The  servant  is  not  greater  than  his  lord ; 
if  they  have  persecuted  me,  they  will  also  perse- 
cute you."  "  They  shall  put  you  out  of  the  syna- 
gogues, yea,  the  time  cometh,  that  whosoever  kill- 
eth  you  will  think  that  he  doeth  God  service." 

Such  were  the  avowed  conditions  of  discipleship 
in  the  school  of  Jesus.  Had  the  primitive  believ- 
ers recoiled  from  suffering  when  called  on  to  suffer, 
they  would  have  belied  their  faith.  Had  they  not 
been  called  on  to  suffer,  their  faith  would  have  be- 
lied itself.  The  prediction  of  their  sufferings 
formed  a  vital  constituent  of  the  Gospel ;  the  fail- 
ure of  the  prediction  would  have  shown  the  Gospel 
to  be  a  fiction.  Prophecies  unfulfilled  prove  the 
prophet  an  impostor.  Had  early  Christianity  passed 
scuthless  through  several  successive  generations, 
its  continued  tranquillity  w^ould  have  demonstrated 
it  to  be  "  of  the  earth,  earthy."  Its  enemies  would 
have  pointed  contemptuously  at  its  unaccomplished 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  223 

predictions;  and  the  "slow  unmoving  finger"  of 
scorn  would  have  been  of  more  exterminating 
power  than  the  stake,  the  cross,  or  the  lions. 

Time  speedily  evinced  the  truth  of  the  evangel- 
ical denunciations  ;  it  brought  down  upon  the  early 
faithful  the  full  weight  of  the  foretold  sufferings. 
There  was  no  failure  in  the  prophecies  of  the  Gos- 
pel. Among  the  christian  sufferers  the  sacred 
writers  held  precedence.  In  their  own  persons 
they  helped  to  fulfil  the  predictions  which  their 
own  hands  had  recorded.  Their  agency  in  the 
promulgation  of  the  Gospel  marked  them  as  prom- 
inent objects  of  the  world's  vengeance.  This  they 
must  have  expected  from  the  beginning.  And  is  it 
indeed  to  be  believed,-  that  the  evangelical  wit- 
nesses, without  motive  of  revenge,  or  gain,  or  am- 
bition, headed  an  impious  conspiracy  for  the  pre- 
meditated and  sole  purpose  of  earning  for  them- 
selves obloquy,  persecutions,  and  sufferings  lasting 
as  life  and  more  bitter  than  death  ?  Yet  such  is 
the  faith  that  infidelity  would  inculcate  as  a  substi- 
tute for  the  faith  of  the  Gospel ! 

There  was  an  element  in  the  sufferings  of  the 
primitive  faithful,  not  perhaps  so  palpable  to  the 
eye  of  history,  as  their  imprisonments  and  physical 
tortures,  and  yet  no  less  "piercing,  even  to  the  di- 


Si24  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

viding  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit."  Christianity 
reared  a  wall  of  partition  between  them  and  those 
unbelieving  companions  to  whom  their  hearts  had 
most  fondly  cleaved.  This  rupture  of  social  liga- 
ments was  predicted  by  the  Founder  of  the  Gospel : 
"  Suppose  ye  that  I  am  come  to  give  peace  on  the 
earth  ?  I  tell  you  nay,  but  rather  division."  "  The 
father  shall  be  divided  against  the  son,  and  the  son 
against  the  father ;  the  mother  against  the  daughter, 
and  the  daughter  against  the  mother."* 

To  the  primitive  christians  it  was  no  slight  be- 
reavement to  have  thus  severed  the  warm  ties 
which  had  bound  them  to  the  dear  friends  of  their 
youth,  the  beloved  associates  of  all  their  toils,  their 
pleasures  and  their  griefs :  to  behold  familiar  faces, 
heretofore  lighted  up  with  smiles,  now  covered  with 
the  wintry  frown  ;  to  see  hands  once  extended  for 
the  friendly  grasp,  now  indignantly  repulsive  to 
their  kindest  advances.  Paul  doubtless  felt  the 
alienation  of  the  companions  of  his  early  studies, 
and  the  estrangement  of  the  venerable  Gamaliel, 
more  keenly  than  he  did  the  revilings  and  lashes 
of  stranger  foes.  And  the  iron  grasp  of  early  infi- 
delity rent  asunder  even  the  strong  chords  of  na- 

*  Luke  xii.  51,  53. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  '■"  225 

ture.  The  unbelieving  parent  anathematized  the 
believing  child  ;  the  unbelieving  child  poured  con- 
tempt on  the  believing  parent. 

Voluntary  expatriation  for  conscience'  sake  is, 
perhaps,  the  most  arduous  achievement  to  which 
humanity  ever  attained.  The  Lacedaemonian  leg- 
islator who  bound  his  countrymen  by  oath  to  main- 
tain his  laws  inviolate  until  he  should  himself  re- 
turn, and  then  went  into  perpetual  exile  to  pine 
away  and  die  in  a  foreign  clime,  thus  giving  per- 
manence to  hi-s  laws  by  his  own  self-banishment, 
was  doubtless  a  more  suffering  patriot  than  the 
Spartan  hero  who  at  Thermopylae  sought  and  ob- 
tained an  immortaUty  of  fame.  Self-banishment 
may  be  effected  without  change  of  domicil.  It  is 
less  its  hills  and  its  vales,  than  its  social  charms 
that  bind  us  to  our  native  land.  Severed  from 
these  ties  of  affection  we  become  exiles,  though  we 
may  remain  at  home.  The  most  terrible  isolation  is 
that  which  is  encompassed  by  alienated  friends. 
To  this  exile  of  the  heart  the  primitive  disciples  be- 
came the  victims.  They  gave  up  for  Christ  the 
loved  companions  of  their  childhood,  their  brethren 
and  sisters,  and  fathers  and  mothers ;  "  they  for- 
sook all  and  followed  him."  And  if  they  were  con- 
scious hypocrites,  the  faith  they  professed  afforded 
10* 


226      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

them  no  substitute  for  the  sacrifices  they  had  made. 
They  became  aUens  to  God  as  well  as  to  their 
friends,  and  kindred,  and  country. 

Fifthly. — ti'urther  proof  that  the  evangeHcal 
witnesses  were  sincere  and  honest  in  deUvering 
their  testimony  is  derived  from  the  additional  fact 
that  it  exposed  them,  not  only  to  contumely,  perse- 
cutions, and  sufferings,  but  to  imminent  jeopardy  of 
martyrdom.  This  impending  jeopardy  they  under- 
stood from  the  first ;  for  it  was  recorded  in  their 
own  writings.  Multitudes  of  the  apostles  drank  of 
the  cup  of  which  their  Master  had  drank,  and  were 
baptized  of  the  baptism  of  which  he  had  been  bap- 
tized. To  the  honors  of  martyrdom,  two  at 
least  of  the  evangelical  writers  attained  ;  and  their 
deaths  of  torture  are  supposed  to  have  occurred  in 
the  memorable  gardens  of  Nero.  The  imperial 
Julian  sneeringly  points  to  the  sepulchres  of  Peter 
and  of  Paul  in  his  own  capital. 

Martyrdom,  though  it  does  not  always  prove  the 
orthodoxy  of  the  martyr,  is  full  demonstration  of 
his  honesty.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  pagan- 
ism ever  stood  ready  to  relent,  if  the  doomed  victim 
would  but  sacrifice  to  her  gods ;  a  single  act  of  ob- 
lation would  always  have  rescued  him,  even  at  the 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  227 

last  extremity.  Polytheism  welcomed  back  christian 
recreants,  as  her  own  prodigal  sons  returned  to  the 
maternal  bosom.  She  received  them  not  only  with 
affection,  but  with  favor.  No  man  ever  died  to 
vindicate  a  known  lie,  when  he  might  have  saved 
his  life,  and  his  honor  too  in  the  estimation  of  the 
world,  by  simple  recantation.  Voluntary  martyr- 
doms have  sometimes  been  incurred  in  the  cause 
of  error ;  never  in  the  cause  of  hypocrisy.  The 
Gospel  writers,  then,  were  not  hypocrites ;  the  dun- 
geon, the  stake,  and  the  cross  attest  their  sincerity. 
It  is  true  that  the  martyrs  of  the  primitive  church 
professed  to  be  sustained  in  the  midst  of  their 
agonies  by  ecstatic  communion  with  their  risen  Sa- 
viour, and  transporting  views  of  the  joys  which 
awaited  them  in  the  paradise  so  near  at  hand.  But 
this  profession  was  sheer  hypocrisy,  if  they  believed 
that  the  Gospel  was  only  a  delusion.  An  imposture, 
known  and  felt  to  be  such,  has  no  charms  to  soothe 
and  ravish  the  departing  spirit.  Had  the  tortured 
and  condemned  promulgators  of  the  persecuted 
faith  been  professors  in  name  only,  and  unbelievers 
in  heart,  they  would  not,  even  in  imagination,  have 
been  sustained  and  gladdened  at  the  dying  hour  by 
those  glories  of  the  opening  heavens  which  trans- 
ported the  stoned   Stephen.     Nor  could   they,  if 


228  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

conscious  hypocrites,  have  hoped  to  enjoy  even 
the  fabled  elysium  of  polytheism.  For  they  had 
irreverently  affronted  all  the  false  deities  of  Olym- 
pus, as  w^ell  as  that  sublime  and  unapproachable 
Essence  v^^hom  the  heathen  sometimes  termed  the 
Soul  of  the  universe,  and  ignorantly  worshipped  as 
"  The  unknown  God ;"  they  had  forged  his  awful 
name  to  a  record  of  falsehoods ;  they  had  set  the 
world  on  fire,  and  impiously  pretended  that  the 
flame  came  down  from  heaven.  Thenceforth  "  a 
certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment  and  fiery  in- 
dignation" must  have  preyed  on  the  souls  of  the 
blaspheming  reprobates,  and  darkened  even  their 
dungeon's  gloom.* 

♦  Hebrews  x  21. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


THE   SAME   SUBJECT   CONTINUED. 


Auxiliary  and  supplemental  -witnesses  to  christian  miracles — Gos- 
pel made  miracles  test  of  its  divinity — Age  of  miracles  continued 
near  seventy  years — During  miraculous  age  all  christians  had 
sure  means  of  ascertaining  genuineness  of  miracles — Bore  testi- 
mony to  their  genuineness  by  perilous  adhesion  to  persecuted 
faith — Miracles  the  evidences  of  title  to  the  promised  inheritance 
above — Seekers  after  truth  of  Gospel  would  scrutinize  closely 
these  evidences  before  giving  up  all  to  purchase  inheritance — 
"Witnesses  to  miracles  thus  multiplied  to  many  thousands — Each 
•witness  testified  by  his  act  as  strongly  as  he  could  by  his  pen  or 
oath — Argument  of  Leslie  drawn  from  institutions  of  Baptism 
Lord's  Supper  and  christian  Sabbath — New  Testament  and  old 
parts  of  same  system — If  Gospel  forged  so  were  Jewish  Scrip- 
tures. 

We  have  hitherto  limited  our  remarks  upon  the 
proofs  of  the  christian  miracles  to  the  depositions 
of  the  eight  writers  of  the  Gospel.  But  it  must 
never  be  forgotten,  that  the  truth  of  those  deposi- 
tions is  confirmed  by  a  mighty  host  of  collateral 
and  supplemental  witnesses. 

Jesus  Christ  declared,  "  For  the  works  which  the 
Father  hath  given  me  to  finish,  the  same  works 
that  I  do  bear  witness  of  me  that  the  Father  hath 


230  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

sent  me/'*     "  If  I  do  not  the  works  of  my  Father, 
believe  me  not.     But  if  I  do,  though  ye  beUeve  not 
me,   believe   the   works. "f      He   appealed   to  his 
works  as  proofs  that  he  was  the  Son  of  God.     He  . 
exacted  belief  or  sanctioned  unbelief,  as  his  works 
were   or  were   not  miraculous.      The   Redeemer 
dealt  with  those  he  came  to  redeem  as  with  ra- 
tional beings  ;  he  required  not   blind  rehance  on 
the  truth  even  of  his  own  benign  declarations ;  he 
rested  the  authentication  of  his  messiahship  on  his 
signs  and  wonders.     And   the   Gospel  announced 
that  to  his  apostles  he  bequeathed  miraculous  pow- 
ers as  the  palpable  seals  of  their  heavenly  mission. 
Paul  affirmed,  in  his  second  epistle  to  the  church 
planted  by  him  at  Corinth,  "  Truly  the  signs  of  an 
apostle  were  wrought  among  you  in  all  patience,  in 
signs  and  wonders  and  mighty  deeds. "J     And  in 
his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  when  speaking  of  the 
apostolic  missionaries  to  the  dispersed  nations,  he 
declared,    "God   also  bearing   them   witness   both 
with  signs  and  wonders,  and  with  divers  miracles, 
and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost."§     Thus  the  Gospel 
made  the  genuineness  of  its  mighty  works  the  test 


«  John  V.  36.  t  John  x.  37,  38. 

X  2  Corinthians  xiL  12.  §  Hebrews  il  4. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  231 

of  its  credibility.  Among  those  works  it  classed 
the  supernatural  gift  of  tongues  claimed  to  be  ex- 
ercised by  its  primitive  preachers. 

In  the  age  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  in  the  apos- 
tolic era  succeeding  his  decease,  the  profession  of 
his  religion  was  attended  with  tremendous  sacri- 
fices. All  sublunary  hopes  were  to  be  abandoned 
for  the  hope  of  an  unseen  inheritance  beyond  the 
grave.  The  palpable  proofs  of  the  reality  of  that 
inheritance  were  the  signs  and  wonders  claimed  to 
be  wrought  by  the  Founder  of  Christianity  and  his 
apostles.  Those  signs  and  wonders  were  the  offi- 
cial credentials  of  the  Gospel.  On  those  creden- 
tials would  be  riveted  the  inquisition  of  the  world. 
More  especially  intense  must  have  been  the  scru- 
tiny of  those  who  were  about  to  exchange  the  re- 
ligion of  their  ancestors  for  the  new  faith  which 
promised  nothing  below  the  skies  save  obloquy, 
privation,  and  suffering. 

Even  an  earthly  estate,  though  comparatively 
of  ephemeral  worth,  is  not  purchased  without  a 
previous  and  thorough  examination  of  the  evi- 
dences of  its  title.  No  purchaser  would  rely  on 
the  mere  representations  of  an  unknown  vendor. 
The  heavenly  estate  proffered  by  the  Gospel,  as  far 
surpassed  in  value  any  terrestrial  acquisition  as  the 


232      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

duration  of  eternity  surpasses  the  duration  of  time. 
But  the  terms  on  which  the  celestial  inheritance 
was  offered  to  the  primitive  inquirer,  were  strict, 
uncompromising,  and  startling.  He  must  forsake 
the  world,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  and  follow 
the  crucified  Redeemer.  Costly  and  perilous  was 
the  proposed  investment ;  on  the  evidences  of  its 
reality,  it  is  most  unlikely  that  the  searcher  after 
truth  would  permit  himself  to  be  deceived.  The 
heavenly  inheritance  was  presented  to  him  as  the 
"  one  pearl  of  great  price ;"  but  before  he  "  went 
and  sold  all  that  he  had  and  bought  it,"*  the  com- 
mon principles  of  human  nature  assure  us  that  he 
would  have  sought,  as  for  his  life,  to  learn  vv^hether 
the  seemingly  precious  jewel  might  not  be  a  coun- 
terfeit. The  christian  signs  and  wonders  v^ere  the 
sure  touchstone^  for  trying  it.  If  they  were  found 
to  be  illusory,  the  inference  would  be  inevitable 
that  what  purported  to  be  "  the  pearl  of  great  price," 
was  but  a  bauble  of  earthly  mould ;  if  the  miracles 
were  ascertained  to  be  real,  they  demonstrated  it 
to  be  genuine  and  enduring  as  the  eternal  throne. 

The  personal  followers  of  our  Lord  were  eye  and 
ear  witnesses  of  his  miracles.     Their  united  senses 

*  Matthew  xiii.  46. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  233 

could  not  have  deceived  them.  By  the  very  act 
of  adherence  to  the  new  faith,  they  testified  to  their 
cotemporaries  and  to  posterity,  that  his  signs  and 
wonders  were  supernatural.  They  became  fellow- 
witnesses  with  the  eight  writers  of  the  Gospel. 
The  thousands  of  dwellers  at  Jerusalem  who  were 
made  converts  to  Christianity  within  a  few  days 
after  its  Founder  had  been  crucified  as  a  malefac- 
tor, must  have  known  of  their  own  knowledge, 
whether  his  crucifixion  was  attended  with  the 
quaking  of  the  earth,  the  rending  of  the  rocks,  and 
the  darkening  of  the  sun ;  and  by  plighting  their 
allegiance  to  the  persecuted  religion,  they  bore  un- 
equivocal testimony  to  the  fact  of  those  stupendous 
prodigies.  Living  upon  the  spot  cotemporaneously 
with  his  alleged  resurrection,  they  were  surrounded 
with  demonstrations  of  the  truthful  or  fabulous 
character  of  that  event  so  vital  to  the  christian 
faith.  That  they  cast  in  their  lot  with  the  people 
of  God,  is  irrefragable  evidence  that  they  knew  the 
resurrection  to  be  a  glorious  reality. 

To  the  stern  test  of  miracles,  the  Gospel  submit- 
ted itself  for  almost  seventy  years  after  the  death 
of  its  Author.  The  apostolic  era,  commencing  at 
the  time  of  the  ascension,  terminated  not  until  the 
decease  of  the  last  of  the  chosen  twelve ;  sgid  Saint 


234  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

John  survived  until  nearly  the  end  of  the  first  cen- 
tury. That  v^hole  era  claimed  to  be  a  continuation 
of  the  age  of  miracles.  It  v^as  not  the  original  mir- 
acles performed  in  Judea  during  the  lifetime  of  the 
Saviour,  to  which  alone  the  Gospel  referred  when 
stating  that  signs  and  wonders  were  its  authenti- 
cating credentials.  The  gift  of  tongues  was  not 
imparted  until  the  day  of  pentecost.  Miracles 
were  the  avowed  credentials  of  Christianity  in  all 
its  pristine  progress.  The  nations  were  authorized 
by  the  Gospel  itself  to  require  the  display  of  those 
credentials  as  a  preliminary  to  their  belief.  They 
were  not  bound  to  heed  the  heralds  of  the  cross, 
unless  they  exhibited  "  the  signs  of  an  apostle." 
A  total  dearth  of  miracles  during  the  era  claimed 
as  miraculous,  would  have  been  fatal  to  the  cause 
of  Christianity.  It  w^ould  have  betrayed  a  discrep- 
ancy between  what  it  had  professed  and  what  it 
had  performed.  In  its  falsified  pretensions,  unbe- 
lief would  have  found  a  triumphant  apology.  Had 
the  world,  by  the  most  profound  and  searching 
scrutiny,  been  able  to  detect  any  imposture  or  fail- 
ure in  the  christian  signs  and  wonders,  the  Gospel, 
making  its  miracles  the  test  of  its  truth,  would  have 
perished  by  its  own  suicidal  hands.  The  astound- 
ing progress  of  Christianity  during  the  first  century, 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  235 

is,  therefore,  conclusive  demonstration  that  it  faith- 
fully performed  what  it  had  professed ;  and  that  its 
victories  were  achieved  "  with  signs  and  wonders, 
and  with  divers  miracles,  and  gifts  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  not  simulated  but  genuine. 

There  was  no  possibility  of  mistake  in  the  reality 
of  the  christian  prodigies.  The  age  termed  mirac- 
ulous, including  the  time  of  the  public  ministrations 
of  our  Lord,  continued  about  threescore  years  and 
ten ;  it  embraced  two  entire  generations  of  the 
human  family.  During  this  long  period  the  prose- 
lytes of  the  new  religion  gathered  in  the  vast  conti- 
nents of  Asia,  Europe,  and  Africa,  were  spectators 
and  auditors  of  its  signs  and  wonders.  Whether 
the  sick  were  cured,  the  dead  raised,  the  elements 
controlled  by  a  word;  and  whether  the  various  na- 
tions and  tribes  were  addressed  in  their  own  multi- 
farious and  strange  languages,  by  Jewish  fishermen, 
publicans,  and  tentmakers,  scarcely  understanding 
the  rudiments  of  their  mother  tongue,  were  simple 
points  which  the  senses  of  all  observers  could  ascer- 
tain with  unerring  precision.  They  had  not  to 
explore  distant  countries;  the  wonderful  demon- 
strations were  brought  home  to  their  own  doors. 
Without  the  fullest  confidence  in  the  reality  of  the 
celestial  inheritance  promised  to  the  faithful,  and 


236       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

attested  by  the  signs  and  wonders  of  the  Gospel, 
the  spiritual  children  of  the  age  held  miraculous,  so 
vast  in  their  numbers,  so  diverse  in  their  nativities, 
their  speech,  their  intellectual  and  social  conditions, 
would  not  voluntarily  have  exchanged  the  fascina- 
tions of  this  alluring  world  for  the  lives  of  privation 
and  suffering,  and  the  deaths  of  torture  exacted  by 
the  faith  of  the  carpenter's  Son.  Individuals  may 
be  deluded  for  a  time  by  fictitious  miracles;  but 
where  the  professed  miracles  are  open,  public,  and 
diffused,  such  delusion  could  not  overspread  conti- 
nents and  reign  for  generations,  especially  at  a 
period  distinguished  for  mental  culture. 

The  evangelical  deponents  who  composed  the 
Gospel  were  but  eight  in  number.  But  they  were 
reinforced  by  an  auxiliary  army  of  collateral  and 
supplemental  witnesses,  extending  from  the  conver- 
sion of  water  into  wine,  by  Jesus  Christ,  at  Cana  of 
Galilee,  to  the  close  of  the  apostolic  era,  and 
amounting  to  hundreds  of  thousands.  Every 
year  of  the  memorable  epoch  swelled  the  mighty 
array.  Before  its  close  Christianity  had  spread 
itself  into  almost  every  country  of  the  then  known 
world.  Each  step  of  its  triumphant  march  had 
multiplied  the  proofs  of  its  heavenly  origin  by  mul- 
tiplying the  witnesses  to  the   genuineness   of  its 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  237 

authenticating  prodigies.  Few  written  testimonials 
from  these  collateral  and  supplemental  witnesses 
have  reached  the  present  day.  But  stronger  than 
writings,  in  convincing  power,  were  their  perilous 
professions  of  the  persecuted  faith.  They  testified 
by  their  acts  more  irresistibly  than  they  could 
have  testified  by  their  oaths.  Actions  speak  louder 
than  mere  words  flowing  either  from  the  tongue 
or  from  the  pen. 

It  cannot  be  imagined  that  for  the  greater  part 
of  a  century,  and  in  almost  every  country  of  the 
known  world,  the  converts  to  the  Gospel  were  de- 
ceived by  simulated  miracles.  The  nature  of  the 
miracles,  and  their  wide  diffusion  and  long-con- 
tinued duration,  precluded  the  possibility  of  decep- 
tion. Nor  can  it  be  imagined  even  by  the  infidel, 
that  the  mass  of  primitive  believers,  whose  unwrit- 
ten and  unassuming  testimonials  to  the  genuineness 
of  the  christian  signs  and  wonders  have  descended 
along  the  track  of  time  like  a  deep,  silent,  over- 
powering stream,  were  all  combined  in  a  fraudu- 
lent conspiracy  to  deceive  their  fellow-beings. 
What  could  they  have  gained  by  becoming  parties 
to  such  a  conspiracy?  Infidelity  has  urged  that 
the  writers  of  the  Gospel  were  pressed  onward  by 
the  thirst  of  distinction.     If  this  charge  was  truth- 


238  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

ful  instead  of  being,  as  it  is,  grossly  libellous,  how 
could  it  apply  to  the  common  mass  of  the  early 
converts?  There  is  a  distinction  between  the 
teachers  of  a  theory  and  the  taught.  Should  the 
authors  of  an  imposture  be  impelled  by  the  expec- 
tation of  acquiring  for  themselves  a  false  renown, 
from  its  ingenuity,  novelty,  and  success,  how  could 
the  deluded  dupes  of  the  imposture  aspire  to  share 
in  the  triumph  ?  It  was  not,  then,  the  desire  of 
fame,  but  the  almightiness  of  truth,  which  induced 
the  unambitious  multitudes  of  early  proselytes  to 
abandon  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  for  the  de- 
tested and  despised  faith  of  the  cross. 

Beside  the  eight  writers  of  the  Gospel,  and  the 
numerous  converts  to  Christianity  in  the  first  cen- 
tury, there  was  yet  another  class  of  v^itnesses  to  its 
signs  and  wonders,  not  to  be  passed  over  in  silence. 
To  the  fact  of  those  signs  and  wonders,  the  unbe- 
lieving Jews  and  gentiles  of  the  age  termed  miracu- 
lous bore  reluctant  but  resistless  testimony. 

The  primitive  unbelievers  well  knew,  that  from 
the  beginning,  the  Gospel  had  announced  its  mir- 
acles as  its  official  credentials ;  that  it  made  them 
the  test  of  its  truth ;  that  in  its  march  from  country 
to  country  it  had  everywhere  displayed  them  in  the 
face  of  its  enemies,  whose  most  rigid  scrutiny  it  had 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  239 

openly  challenged.  That  challenge  its  enemies 
could  not  elude.  They  gazed  on  the  prodigies,  and 
wondered,  and  trembled,  and  blasphemed.  They 
well  knew  that  if  they  could  pierce  Christianity  in 
the  vital  constituent  of  its  miracles,  the  wound, 
however  slight,  must  be  necessarily  fatal.  Yet  with 
the  most  ample  means  of  examination,  they  detected 
no  deception  in  the  christian  wonders.  That  their 
closest  research,  animated  by  untiring  zeal,  could 
detect  no  imposture,  was  conclusive  evidence  to  all 
posterity  that  no  imposture  existed.  The  Jews  as- 
cribed the  stupendous  works  to  the  agency  of  Beel- 
zebub ;  the  gentiles  to  magic  learned  in  Egypt.  By 
thus  attributing  them  to  demoniac  or  magical  in- 
fluences, both  Jews  and  gentiles  admitted  their 
existence  and  supernatural  character.  The  total 
denial  that  prodigies  were  wrought  by  Jesus  Christ 
and  by  his  apostles,  is  an  achievement  of  modern 
infidelity.  Both  Celsus  and  Julian,  as  we  have 
seen  in  a  former  chapter,  virtually  admitted  the 
reality  of  the  christian  signs  and  wonders. 

Baptism,  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  the  Christian 
Sabbath  are  public  monuments  authenticating  the 
miracles  of  the  Gospel. 

These  memorials  of  dying  love  could  not  have 
been  the  inventions  of  an  age  posterior  to  that  as- 


240  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN     ADVOCATE. 

signed  for  their  origin.  The  Gospel  affirms  that 
they  were  coeval  with  the  death  of  its  Founder ; 
and  that  the  whole  christian  church  had  from  the 
beginning  recognized  them  as  divine  institutions. 
Had  they  been  first  introduced  in  a  subsequent 
century,  their  assumption  of  an  anterior  date 
would  have  been  an  imposture  palpable  to  univer- 
sal perception.  None  could  have  been  ignorant 
that  they  had  never  been  heard  of  before;  and 
their  fraudulent  claim  to  antiquity  would  have 
concentrated  upon  the  christian  name  the  just  in- 
dignation of  an  outraged  world,  and  blighted  all 
hopes  of  enlarging  here  below  the  empire  of  the 
Prince  of  peace. 

Nor  could  Baptism,  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  the 
Christian  Sabbath  have  been  originally  established 
in  the  age  to  which  the  Gospel  ascribes  them,  un- 
less they  had  for  their  broad  and  deep  foundation 
the  verity  of  the  facts  of  which  they  preserve  the 
remembrance.  They  commemorate  not  the  death 
of  Jesus  Christ  alone,  but  also  all  the  miracles  by 
which  he  authenticated  his  messiahship,  whether 
performed  by  himself  or  by  his  apostles.  They 
commemorate  the  whole  stupendous  panorama  of 
salvation.  Those  monumental  institutions  would 
not  have  been  reared  and  perpetuated  by  the  unan- 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  241 

imous  concurrence  of  the  early  church,  had  a 
shadow  of  suspicion  rested  upon  the  miraculous 
demonstrations  of  the  Gospel's  truth. 

The  observance  of  the  institutions  was  attended 
witji  the  most  imminent  perils  to  the  primitive  pro- 
fessors. The  heathen  Pliny  admits  in  his  letter  to 
his  imperial  sovereign,  herein  before  set  forth,  that 
when  the  early  believers  met  "  on  a  stated  day," 
"  to  repeat  among  themselves  a  hymn  to  Christ  as 
to  a  God,"  they  were  obliged  "  to  meet  before  day- 
light." It  was  only  under  the  shade  of  night  that 
they  could  venture  to  chaunt  the  praises  of  their 
Redeemer.  According  to  the  same  authority,  their 
sacramental  feasts  exposed  the  communicants  to 
the  most  pressing  danger  of  torture  and  death. 
Even  the  pious  deaconesses,  referred  to  by  Pliny, 
were  not  protected  by  their  sex  or  age  from  the 
common  and  appalling  jeopardy.  The  christian 
ordinances  could  not  have  survived  for  a  single 
year  the  wrath  of  persecution,  unless  the  divinity 
of  the  Gospel  had  been  confirmed  "with  signs 
and  wonders,  and  with  divers  miracles  and  gifts 
of  the  Holy  Ghost."  Nothing  but  the  outstretched 
arm  of  God  saved  them  from  the  fury  of  man. 

The  argument  for  the  truth  of  Christianity,  drawn 

from  its  commemorative  institutions,  seems  to  have 
11  . 


242      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

been  first  presented  by  Leslie ;  and  his  "  Short  and 
Easy  Method  with  the  Deists,"  has  long  been  justly 
celebrated  for  its  brevity,  acuteness,  and  force. 

If  the  Gospel  is  a  fabrication,  it  is  impossible  that 
the  Jewish  Scriptures  should  have  been  written  by 
the  finger  of  God.  The  two  codes  are  linked  to- 
gether by  indissoluble  ties.  The  Old  Testament  is 
replete  with  prophetic  delineations  of  the  Messiah 
of  the  New;  the  New  Testament  abounds  in  ap- 
proving references  to  the  Old.  If  the  eight  writers 
of  the  Gospel  joined  together  in  an  unholy  league, 
the  grand  scriptural  conspiracy  for  the  deception 
of  the  world,  must  have  been  as  ancient  as  the 
pentateuch.  Between  the  date  of  the  books  of 
Moses  and  the  close  of  the  apostolic  era,  sixteen 
hundred  years  elapsed.  A  fraudulent  conspiracy, 
without  prospect  of  wealth  or  fame,  could  not  have 
found  aliment  to  live  on  for  so  many  centuries. 
The  secret  of  the  imposture  must  have  been  con- 
fided to  all  the  principal  confederates.  That  fatal 
secret  could  not  have  escaped  detection  by  domes- 
tic treason  or  foreign  scrutiny  during  such  a  suc- 
cession of  ages.  If  not  otherwise  brought  to  light, 
the  confessions  of  the  death-bed  would  at  some 
time  have  betrayed  it.  These  thoughts  are  strongly 
and  beautifully  expressed  by  Dryden  in  the  follow- 


THE    CHRISTIAN    MIRACLES.  243 

ing  lines,   blending  with  the  force   of  truth  the 
charms  of  poetry : — 

"  Whence,  but  from  heaven,  could  men  unskilled  in  arts, 
In  different  ages  born,  in  different  parts, 
Weave  such  agreeing  truths  ?     Or  how,  or  why 
Should  all  conspire  to  cheat  us  with  a  lie  ? 
Unasked  their  pains,  ungrateful  their  advice, 
Starving  their  gains,  and  martyrdom  their  price." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Hume's  objection  to  mieacles. 

Miniature  of  Hume's  theory — Yagueness  in  his  use  of  term  ex- 
perience— General  uniformity  of  nature's  laws  proved  by  human 
testimony — So  may  any  exceptions  to  that  uniformity — On 
Hume's  theory  miracles  not  to  be  beheved  on  evidence  of  our 
own  senses — Evidence  of  senses  not  more  infallible  than  well 
sustained  testimony  of  oiu-  fellow-men — Man  lives  in  world  of 
miracles  and  is  himself  a  miracle — No  objection  to  miracles  that 
they  are  designed  to  authenticate  a  system  of  religion — Such 
miracles  imbued  with  intrinsic  probability — No  impostor  ever 
founded  new  system  of  faith  on  miracles. 

Hume  may,  perhaps,  be  deemed  the  prince  of 
infidels.  His  deadly  aim  at  the  heart  of  our  holy 
religion,  caused  at  first  some  alarm  in  the  christian 
world.  But  the  bolt  has  fallen  powerless  to  the 
earth.  By  a  sort  of  second  sight  the  Scotch  philos- 
opher indulged  the  assurance  that  his  celebrated 
essay  on  miracles  would  live  and  reign  until  the 
end  of  time.  He  says ;  "  I  flatter  myself  that  I 
have  discovered  an  argument  which,  if  just,  will 
with  the  wise  and  learned,  be  an  everlasting  check 
to  all  kinds  of  superstitious  delusion;  and  conse- 
quently will  be  useful  as  long  as  the  world  endures. 
For  so  long,  I  presume,  will  accounts  of  miracles 


HUME  S    OBJECTION    TO    MIRACLES.  245 

and  prodigies  be  found  in  all  history,  sacred  and 
profane."  The  following  is  a  miniature  of  the 
theory  on  which  he  so  boldly  raised  his  hopes  of 
immortality.  He  contends  that  our  belief  of  facts 
is  founded  on  experience  alone ;  that  experience 
teaches  that  nature's  laws  are  inflexibly  uniform, 
and  that  human  testimony  is  lamentably  deceptive ; 
that  a  miracle  would  be  a  violation  of  those  fixed 
laws ;  that  when  a  miraculous  event  is  affirmed  on 
the  credit  of  human  testimony,  the  affirmation  is 
opposed  by  our  sure  experience  of  the  established 
course  of  nature ;  and  that  in  such  contest,  the 
evidence  against  the  alleged  miracle,  arising  from 
the  established  course  of  nature  controls  and  over- 
rules the  human  testimony  in  its  favor,  as  in  a  con- 
flict between  the  fallible  and  the  infallible,  the  latter 
must  always  predominate.  From  these  premises 
is  drawn  his  confident  conclusion,  that  no  accumu- 
lation of  human  testimony  whatsoever  can  establish 
a  miracle,  upon  which  any  system  of  religious  faith 
is  sought  to  be  reared. 

The  skeptical  philosopher  uses  the  term  experi- 
ence in  a  sense  not  always  free  from  equivocation. 
He  seems  to  imply  by  the  term,  sometimes  our  own 
individual  experience,  and  sometimes  the  experi- 
ence of  mankind  in  general. 


246  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

If  we  are  to  believe  only  what  we  have  learned 
from  our  own  experience,  our  faith  in  facts  would 
be  confined  to  limits  exceedingly  diminutive.  Com- 
paratively few  know  from  personal  observation, 
that,  on  some  shores,  the  tide  rises  to  the  height  of 
sixty  or  seventy  feet ;  or  that  the  wind,  so  famed 
for  its  variableness,  blows  in  certain  latitudes  from  a 
single  point  throughout  the  year ;  or  that  meteoric 
stones  of  ponderous  weight  have  often  fallen  from 
the  skies.  Yet  all  justly  believe  in  the  existence  of 
these  phenomena  on  the  credit  of  universal  report. 
If  personal  experience  is  the  only  true  basis  of  belief 
in  facts,  the  Saracen  monarch  was  right  in  reject- 
ing as  fabulous  the  tale  of  the  northern  crusaders, 
that  in  their  climate,  rivers  and  lakes  were  some- 
times congealed  by  frost  so  as  to  bear  the  weight 
of  marching  armies ;  and  he  was  wrong  in  after- 
wards yielding  credence  to  the  seeming  prodigy  on 
the  faith  of  human  testimony. 

Nor  are  miracles  to  be  discredited  because  they 
have  not  been  familiar  to  the  experience  of  man- 
kind in  general.  The  definition  of  a  miracle  im- 
plies a  departure  from  laws  ordinarily  uniform. 
The  arrest  of  the  sun  on  Gibeon  would  not  have 
been  a  preternatural  wonder  had  the  luminary  of 
day  been  accustomed  to  pause  in  its  career.     Mir- 


HUME  S    OBJECTION    TO    MIRACLES.  247 

acles  are  exceptions  to  the  general  order  of  the 
physical  universe ;  and  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the 
witnesses  to  the  exceptions  should  be  the  few  and 
not  the  many.  It  is  a  vital  element  in  the  infidel 
theory,  that  miracles  are  opposed  not  only  to  the 
general,  but  also  to  the  universal  experience  of  the 
human  race.  A  single  acknowledged  deviation 
from  the  laws  of  nature,  in  any  country  or  age, 
would  be  fatal  to  the  theory.  "  There  must,  there- 
fore," says  Hume,  "be  a  uniform  experience 
against  every  miraculous  event;  otherwise  the 
event  would  not  merit  that  appellation." 

In  assuming  it  as  a  truism,  that  miracles  are  op- 
posed to  the  immemorial  and  universal  experience 
of  human  kind,  the  philosopher  takes  for  granted 
the  very  point  in  issue  between  him  and  christians. 
We  utterly  deny  the  truth  of  the  position,  so  con- 
fidently assumed.  The  philosopher's  palpable  of- 
fence against  the  first  principles  of  sound  logic  is 
styled  in  Latin  petitio  principii,  and,  in  plain 
English,  begging  the  question.  The  burden  of 
proving  that  the  laws  of  nature  have  been  invio- 
lable from  the  beginning,  devolved  upon  him.  He 
attempts  summarily  to  dispose  of  this  onus  prohandi 
by  the  bare  and  bold  assertion,  that  their  inviola- 
bility has  been  established  by  "  a  firm  and  unalter- 


248  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

able  experience."  No  other  proof  does  he  deign  to 
suggest.  But  how  did  he  ascertain  this  experience  ? 
He  could  not  have  acquired  it  by  intuition,  or  by 
his  own  personal  observation.  He  possessed  not 
the  attribute  of  ubiquity ;  nor  did  his  memory  reach 
back  to  the  birth  of  time.  He  must  have  gathered 
the  materials  of  his  knowledge  from  history  and 
general  report.  It  was  human  testimony  that  gave 
aliment  to  what  he  presumes  to  call  "  a  firm  and 
unalterable  experience."  Excepting  the  diminutive 
speck  of  his  personal  observation,  he  had  no  source 
save  human  testimony,  from  whence  he  could  de- 
rive information  respecting  the  experience  of  the 
human  race. 

Human  testimony  is,  then,  the  basis  of  the  reck- 
less proposition,  that  miracles  are  opposed  to  im- 
memorial and  universal  experience.  Thus  human 
testimony  is  made,  chameleon-like,  to  change  its 
complexion,  according  to  the  point  it  is  called  on 
to  support.  When  sustaining  his  theory  of  the  im- 
mutability of  nature's  laws,  the  insidious  skeptic 
affects  to  regard  it  as  of  incontrovertible  authority. 
But  he  vituperates  it  as  utterly  unworthy  of  credit, 
when  invoked  to  demonstrate  that  God,  for  gra- 
cious purposes,  has  sometimes  suspended  or  varied 
the  physical  laws  of  his  empire.     Hume  expressly 


HUME  S    OBJECTION    TO    MIRACLES.  249 

declares,  "And  therefore  we  may  establish  it  as  a 
maxim,  that  no  human  testimony  can  have  such 
force  as  to  prove  a  miracle,  and  make  it  a  just 
foundation  for  any  system  of  religion." 

Such  are  the  inconsistencies  of  infidelity!  It 
was  never  before  intimated  that  evidence  held  suf- 
ficient to  prove  a  general  rule,  should  not  be  deemed 
equally  sufficient  to  prove  any  exceptions  to  that 
rule.  If  history  and  general  report  are  competent 
to  establish  the  uniformity  of  the  laws  of  nature, 
why  should  they  lack  competency  to  establish  mi- 
raculous suspensions  of  that  uniformity  ?  Yet  the 
candor  of  infidelity  would  array  human  testimony 
in  the  habiliments  of  an  angel  of  light  when  testi- 
fying in  the  cause  of  unbelief,  and  brand  her  as  a 
deceiving  spirit  when  testifying  in  the  cause  of 
salvation ! 

Miracles  may  be  proved  like  other  facts.  All 
the  events  on  earth  may  be  proved  by  the  denizens 
of  earth.  Miracles  are,  indeed,  encumbered  with 
intrinsic  improbabilities,  and  require  an  extraor- 
dinary amount  of  evidence  to  confirm  them.  But 
that  their  intrinsic  improbabilities  are  incapable  of 
being  overcome  by  any  conceivable  accumulation 
of  human  testimony,  is  a  proposition  opposed  alike 

to  the  principles  of  jurisprudence,  philosophy,  and 
II* 


250  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

common  sense.  The  proposition  is  neutralized 
even  by  Hume  himself  in  another  part  of  his  self- 
conflicting  essay.  He  admits  that  any  miracle 
may  be  proved  by  testimony,  if  "  the  testimony  be 
of  such  a  kind  that  its  falsehood  would  be  more  mi- 
raculous than  the  fact  it  endeavors  to  establish." 
In  the  four  preceding  chapters,  we  have  sought  to 
show,  and  we  trust  not  without  success,  that  the 
falsehood  of  the  collective  proofs  of  the  christian 
miracles,  would  be  a  greater  prodigy  than  the  mira- 
cles themselves.  If  we  have  been  successful,  the 
signs  and  wonders  of  the  Gospel  might  find  an  im- 
pregnable asylum  even  in  the  theory  of  their  arch 
foe,  as  expounded  by  himself. 

The  hypothesis  that  a  miracle  cannot  be  proved 
by  human  testimony,  because,  while  such  testimony 
is  ever  deceptive,  the  laws  of  nature  are  forever 
immutable,  draws  after  it,  if  true,  the  consequent 
truth  that  a  miracle  cannot  be  proved  by  the  united 
evidence  of  our  own  senses.  For  even  our  own 
senses  are  often  faithless ;  the  eye,  the  ear,  and  the 
touch  frequently  beguile.  We  may  imagine  that 
we  see  and  hear,  and  handle  the  miraculous  dem- 
onstration. But,  if  graduates  in  the  school  of  infi- 
delity, we  must,  to  be  consistent,  hold  that  our  vis- 
ual, auricular,  and  sensitive  organs  have  combined 


Hume's  objection  to  miracles,  251 

to  betray  us.  For  it  is  the  master  dogma  of  cheer- 
less unbeUef,  that  the  physical  laws  of  the  universe 
have  been  fixed  and  changeless  from  the  beginning ; 
and  to  believe  on  the  evidence  of  our  misleading 
senses,  that  the  awful  uniformity  of  nature  has  been 
recklessly  violated,  would  be  yielding  to  the  fallible 
predominance  over  the  infalUble. 

Supposing  the  miracle  of  the  five  thousand  fed 
with  the  five  loaves  and  two  small  fishes  to  have 
been  a  solemn  reality,  still  the  beholders,  if  chilled 
with  the  creed  of  infidelity,  could  not  have  yielded 
it  the  tribute  of  grateful  credence.  True,  they  had 
heard  the  gracious  benediction  prefacing  the  won- 
derful repast ;  they  had  seen  the  scanty  elements 
multiplied  by  the  creative  touch ;  they  had  handled 
them  with  their  own  hands ;  they  had  felt  within 
themselves  the  satisfying  and  invigorating  influ- 
ences of  the  ample  feast.  Yet  conscious  of  the 
fallibility  of  the  senses,  and  imagining  that  they 
read  the  dogma  of  nature's  changeless  laws,  writ- 
ten, as  it  were,  on  the  arch  of  the  overhanging 
heavens,  they  must  have  been  forced  to  the  melan- 
choly inference  that  the  whole  beneficent  pano- 
rama was  but  a  delusion  of  the  imagination. 

The  evidence  of  our  senses  is  not  more  demon- 
strative of  facts  than  is  often  the   well- sustained 


"JW  . 


252  THE  GOSPEL    ITS    OWN  ADVOCATE. 

testimony  of  our  fellow-men.  Each  organ  of  vis- 
ion, of  hearing  and  of  touch,  has  but  a  single  voice ; 
the  testimony  of  our  fellow-men  frequently  over- 
powers us  with  its  thousand  tongues.  What  Amer- 
ican, though  he  may  not  have  crossed  the  Atlantic, 
can  doubt  the  existence  of  the  European  continent  ? 
Would  the  evidence  of  his  own  senses  make  his 
"assurance  doubly  sure?"  What  skeptic  of  this 
western  hemisphere  can  distrust  the  reality  of  that 
revolutionary  struggle,  which  purchased  our  inde- 
pendence? Scarcely  would  his  conviction  be 
strengthened  by  his  youthful  reminiscence,  that  he 
had  himself  heard  the  groans  of  the  patriot  warriors 
and  seen  their  "  garments  rolled  in  blood." 

It  little  becomes  the  pigmy  lord  of  earth  to  repu- 
diate all  miracles,  because  to  his  microscopic  vision 
they  seem  to  disturb  the  harmony  of  the  creation. 
He  stands  between  "  two  infinitudes,"  lost  in  amaze- 
ment as  he  gazes  on  the  mysteries  of  the  by-gone 
and  coming  eternities ;  the  wheeling  orb  on  which 
he  dwells  was  miraculously  brought  into  being ;  he 
himself  is  "  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made."  That 
a  breathing,  moving,  thinking,  speaking  miracle — 
in  the  midst  of  a  universe  of  miracles — should  dis- 
card the  demonstrations  authenticating  sacred  truth, 
because  they  are  miraculous,  is  a  superadded  prod- 


Hume's  objection  to  miracles.  253 

igy,  scarcely  less  strange  than  those  from  which  he 
turns  so  irreverently  away. 

The  prince  of  doubters  feared  to  risk  his  antici- 
pated immortality  of  fame  upon  the  naked  proposi- 
tion, that  human  testimony  is  incompetent  to  es- 
tablish a  miracle.  In  the  latter  part  of  his  essay, 
so  involved  throughout  in  civil  war  with  itself,  we 
find  superadded  to  the  declaration,  that  "  a  miracle 
can  never  be  proved  so  as  to  be  the  foundation  of  a 
system  of  religion,"  the  following  controlling  quali- 
fication ;  "  For  I  own  that  otherwise  there  may 
possibly  be  miracles,  or  violations  of  the  usual 
course  of  nature,  of  such  a  kind  as  to  admit  of  proof 
from  human  testimony."  It  cannot  but  be  per- 
ceived, that  this  qualification,  by  the  philosopher 
himself,  is  a  death-blow  to  his  paramount  dogma, 
that  the  immutability  of  nature's  laws  is  established 
by  "a  firm  and  unalterable  experience." 

The  chieftain  of  unbelief  admits,  that  any  miracle 
may  exist  and  be  proved,  except  a  religious  miracle. 
He  withdraws  the  ban  of  infidelity  from  the  proba- 
tion of  supernatural  signs  and  wonders,  unless  the 
signs  and  wonders  have  for  their  object  a  theologi- 
cal system.  Such  a  distinction  is  sustained  or 
countenanced  by  no  precedent  or  principle  in  the 
whole  science  of  evidence.     The  capacity  of  a  fact 


254      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

to  be  proved,  depends  not  upon  the  uses  to  w^hich  it 
may  be  afterw^ards  applied.  A  fact,  w^hen  proved, 
becomes  a  fixed  and  dominant  truth,  operating 
within  its  sphere,  without  Hmitation  or  stint.  A 
miracle  is  emphatically  the  truth  of  God ;  for  his 
own  right  hand  has  wrought  it.  And  who  can 
rightfully  interpose  hindrances  of  human  invention 
to  the  probation  of  God's  own  truth  ?  Why  should 
a  miracle  be  denuded  of  its  susceptibility  of  verifi- 
cation, common  to  miracles  in  general,  because  its 
Author  graciously  displayed  it  to  authenticate  to  his 
creatures  a  revelation  from  himself?  The  design 
or  purpose  of  a  supernatural  phenomenon  cannot 
affect  its  capability  of  being  proved  by  human  testi- 
mony. All  miracles  are  equally  suspensions  or 
variations  of  the  physical  laws  of  the  universe ;  all 
are  accomplished  alike  by  the  special  intervention 
of  almighty  power ;  and  all  are  for  objects  requir- 
ing, in  the  estimate  of  infinite  w^isdom,  that  the 
course  of  nature  should  be  interrupted. 

Suspensions  or  variations  of  the  laws  of  nature 
are  not  intended  for  concealment;  they  are  not 
enacted  in  "  a  corner,"  or  to  be  hidden  "  under  a 
bushel;"  they  are  public  acts,  designed  by  their 
divine  Author  for  promulgation  among  the  dwellers 
upon  the  earth,  and  their  distant  posterity.     This 


Hume's  objection  to  miracles.  255 

peculiarly  applies  to  cases  where  the  miracles  have 
for  their  end  the  authentication  of  a  system  of  faith. 
How  could  the  purposes  of  enduring  publicity  be 
accomplished  without  the  intervention  of  human 
testimony  ?  Must  the  wonderful  displays  be  con- 
tinued from  generation  to  generation  ?  During  the 
whole  march  of  time  must  the  laws  of  nature  stand 
still  ?  Truthful  narratives  of  miraculous  events  are 
to  be  transmitted  from  age  to  age,  for  the  edification 
of  mankind ;  and  human  testimony  is  the  only  ap- 
propriate channel  of  transmission.  But  if  the  signs 
and  wonders  are  of  a  religious  bearing,  the  infidel 
theory  would  hermetically  seal  up  this  needful  chan- 
nel ;  and  consign  to  "  dumb  forgetfulness"  all  by- 
gone miracles,  having  for  their  object  the  salvation 
of  man. 

Nor  are  the  deponents  to  the  christian  prodigies 
affected  with  any  personal  taint,  impeaching  their 
credibility.  It  was  never  intimated,  save  in  the 
wintry  code  of  skepticism,  that  moral  pureness  and 
exalted  piety  are  impediments  to  the  competency 
of  witnesses,  either  in  judicial  tribunals  or  before 
the  grander  inquest  composed  of  the  countless 
millions  of  Christendom. 

Religious  miracles  are  invested  with  an  intrinsic 
probability,  which  would  not  apply  to  miracles  of  a 


256  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

secular  character.  The  supposititious  report  sneer- 
ingly  imagined  by  Hume,  that  after  her  pubUc  death 
and  interment,  and  the  coronation  of  her  successor, 
queen  EHzabeth  had  risen  from  the  dead  and  re- 
sumed the  EngHsh  throne,  would  have  represented 
an  idle  and  w^anton  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature, 
for  no  other  purpose  than  to  raise  the  wonder  of 
the  world.  But  the  christian  miracles  were  suspen- 
sions or  variations  of  nature's  laws,  for  an  object 
worthy  of  nature's  God.  Miracles  are  the  appro- 
priate, the  probable,  and,  as  it  were,  the  natural  ac- 
companiments of  a  revelation  from  above.  If  the 
message  of  Jesus  Christ  was  of  celestial  origin,  the 
presumption  of  reason  is,  that  it  would  have  been 
authenticated  "  with  signs  and  wonders,  and  with 
divers  miracles  and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  At 
the  ushering  in  of  a  divine  revelation,  the  absence 
of  attesting  miracles  would  have  been  an  event 
stranger  than  their  occurrence.  It  was  confidently 
to  be  expected  that  "as  the  thunderbolt  pursues  the 
flash,"  a  spiritual  illumination  bursting  forth  from 
heaven,  would  be  attended  with  supernatural  dem- 
onstrations, palpable  to  the  senses  and  affecting  to 
the  hearts  of  human  kind. 

Hume's  philosophy  was  little  better  than  his  the- 
ism, when  he  urged  the  intrinsic  likelihood  that  im- 


Hume's  objection  to  miracles.  257 

posters,  fabricating  a  novel  system  of  faith,  would 
risk  their  superstructure  upon  the  unstable  founda- 
tion of  fictitious  miracles.  Claims  to  false  prodi- 
gies have  been,  indeed,  often  engrafted  on  super- 
stitions previously  existing,  and  lending  to  the 
deceptions  their  friendly  countenance  and  active 
support.  But  no  author  of  an  original  and  isolated 
imposture,  hostile  to  all  prevalent  systems  of  belief, 
ever  ventured,  under  the  supervision  of  vigilant 
and  implacable  enemies,  to  subject  his  pretensions 
to  the  trying  ordeal  of  works  claimed  to  be  miracu- 
lous. Suppose  that  in  our  own  age  and  country,  a 
theological  adventurer,  denouncing  all  the  existing 
religions  of  earth,  should  proclaim  himself  to  be  a 
prophet  sent  from  heaven  to  found  a  new  and  ex- 
clusive creed,  and,  in  authentication  of  his  pre- 
tended embassy,  should  profess  to  heal  the  sick, 
raise  the  dead,  and  control  the  elements,  by  the 
word  of  his  power ;  that  his  boastful  demonstrations 
should  be  open,  public,  and  diffusive  as  the  light, 
and  that,  instead  of  avoiding,  he  should  challenge, 
from  town  to  town,  from  village  to  village,  and 
from  city  to  city,  the  presence  and  scrutiny  of  his 
ever  wakeful  and  multitudinous  foes. — How  sure, 
how  swift,  how  overwhelming  would  be  his  discom- 
fiture ! 


258  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

Should  any  infidel  reasoner  object  to  our  suppo- 
sition as  referring  to  an  age  and  country  distin- 
guished for  intelligence  and  learning,  and  for  con- 
sequent capacity  to  detect  imposture,  we  would 
point  him  to  Arabia,  the  land  of  fiction,  credulity, 
and  delusion.  No  theological  adventurer  was  ever 
more  enterprising  or  sagacious  than  the  false  prophet 
of  Mecca.  But  Mohammed  dared  not  submit  to 
the  test  of  miracles,  his  supernatural  claims.  He 
professed  to  be  greater  than  Moses  or  Jesus  Christ; 
yet  the  Koran  is  crowded  with  apologies  for  his 
acknowledged  want  of  miraculous  gifts.  In  the 
precarious  infancy  of  his  fortunes,  his  friends  be- 
sought him,  and  his  foes  tauntingly  challenged  him, 
to  authenticate  his  pretensions  to  inspiration  by 
signs  and  wonders.  But  from  this  desperate  at- 
tempt, so  sure  of  speedy  and  ignominious  detection, 
the  wily  Arab  pertinaciously  recoiled.  He  knew, 
he  felt  the  hopelessness  of  any  effort  to  sustain, 
even  among  an  ignorant  and  imaginative  people,  a 
new,  exclusive,  and  uncompromising  faith,  by  coun- 
terfeited miracles,  watched  by  the  never- sleeping 
jealousy  of  scrutinizing  enemies. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   MIRACLE   OF   THE   NEW  BIRTH. 

Regeneration  -wrought  hj  special  power  of  Holy  Ghost  against 
laws  of  our  fallen  nature — It  is  a  miracle  endorsing  and  authen- 
ticating Gospel — Each  true  believer  "  hath  the  witness  in  himself" 
that  he  has  been  born  again,  and  that  Gospel  is  true — Miracle 
of  new  birth  evidence  to  all  the  world  of  Gospel's  truth — Each 
participant  of  eucharist  makes  solemn  affirmation  by  the  act  of 
participation  that,  according  to  his  best  belief,  he  has  been  born 
again — Such  affirmation  equivalent  to  deposition  in  court — These 
depositions  amount  to  many  hundreds  of  millions — Deponents  all 
deceivers,  or  deceived ;  or  else  new  birth  a  reality,  and  Gospel 
from  God — New  birth  standing  miracle. 

To  the  Jewish  dignitary  Jesus  Christ  declared, 
"  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  except  a  man  be 
born  again  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 
Though  this  declaration  seemed  strange  to  the  mas- 
ter in  Israel,  yet  even  reason  must  perceive  and 
feel  its  truth,  if,  with  the  Gospel  in  her  hand,  she 
will  contemplate  the  subject  with  the  same  candor 
and  diligence  which  she  is  wont  to  bestow  upon 
matters  of  secular  science. 

That  man  is  by  nature  fearfully  depraved  is  de- 
monstrated, not  only  by  Scripture,  but  also  by  the 
profane  history  of  every  age  and   country.     The 


f 


260  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

world's  annals  are  written  in  blood,  and  stained 
with  crime.  Nor  are  the  codes  of  earthly  jurispru- 
dence less  conclusive  of  the  fall.  Courts  of  law, 
civil  and  criminal,  venerated  as  they  justly  are, 
would  have  been  but  useless  incumbrances,  with 
all  their  compulsive  machinery,  their  remedies  for 
violated  pacts,  their  pains,  penalties,  and  punish- 
ments, had  man  remained  pure.  Each  jail,  each 
penitentiary,  each  state  prison,  each  gallows,  bears 
melancholy  testimony  to  the  depravity  of  our  apos- 
tate race.  To  restrain  man  from  plundering  and 
murdering  his  fellow-man,  legislation  has  been 
obliged,  at  all  times  and  places,  to  invoke  all  the 
resources  of  its  wisdom  and  skill.  Nor  has  human 
wickedness  confined  itself  to  the  breach  of  the  social 
duties.  Had  its  might  been  equal  to  its  will,  it 
would  have  scaled  the  heavens  and  dethroned  the 
Sovereign  of  the  universe.  Fallen  man  is  at  enmity 
not  only  with  his  fellow-creatures,  but  also  with  his 
God.  If  any  one  is  inclined  to  deem  this  picture 
exaggerated,  let  him  cast  his  vision  inward,  and 
learn  its  truth  by  profound  and  candid  communion 
with  his  own  heart. 

Without  a  radical  change  of  moral  nature  it  is 
impossible  that  man  should  be  happy  here  or  here- 
after.    Sin  and  bliss  dwell  not  together ;  happiness 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  NEW  BIRTH.      261 

and  holiness  are  twin  sisters,  whose  elements  are 
so  compounded  that  they  cannot  Hve  apart.  Crime 
blotted  out  earth's  Eden ;  and  "  except  a  man  be 
born  again  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 
Should  he  with  his  natural  heart  be  admitted  into 
the  upper  sanctuary,  it  would  be  no  paradise  to  him. 
How  could  he  join,  with  lips  uncleansed,  in  the  pure 
psalmody  of  the  skies  ?  And  there  sits  the  ever- 
living  Jehovah,  clothed  in  the  robes  of  holiness, 
whose  eyes  are  "  as  a  flame  of  fire."  From  that 
dread  presence  the  unregenerate  sinner  would  seek 
refuge  even  in  the  vaults  of  despair.  Reason  her- 
self must  perceive  that  renovation  of  heart  is  an  in- 
dispensable preparation  to  admission  into  the  king- 
dom of  heaven. 

The  regeneration  of  the  soul  is  not  within  the 
compass  of  human  effort.  Though  skilled  in  theo- 
logical learning,  Nicodemus  could  have  devised  no 
way  in  which  a  fallen  creature  can  be  born  again. 
Man  has  accomplished  much ;  he  has  moved  on- 
ward with  gigantic  steps  in  the  exploration  of  the 
universe ;  he  has  tamed  into  his  service  the  potency 
of  steam,  and  the  mightier  power  of  electricity. 
But  his  own  little  heart  man  has  never  changed. 
Unless  touched  by  grace,  it  is  the  same  now  as  it 
was  in  the  days  of  Cain.     The  leprosy  of  moral 


262      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

evil  is  cureless  by  sublunary  skill.  Human  science 
has  elevated  the  intellect ;  but  it  wields  no  lever  of 
sufficient  compass  to  Hft  the  carnal  soul  from  the 
depths  of  spiritual  degradation.  Heathen  Athens 
and  Rome  were,  in  all  their  pride  and  glory,  but 
moral  Sodoms. 

Regeneration  is  a  miracle  wrought  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Any  suspension  or  variation  of  the  physi- 
cal laws  of  the  universe  is  a  miracle.  The  moral 
laws  of  human  nature  are  just  as  inflexible  as  the 
laws  of  the  physical  world.  The  unregenerate  man 
is  "dead  in  trespasses  and  sins."  His  resurrection 
to  spiritual  vitality  is  directly  opposed  to  the  es- 
tablished laws  of  his  fallen  nature.  Unaided  hu- 
manity can  no  more  regain  its  pristine  holiness  than 
the  cataract  can  re-ascend  the  mountain  height. 
Regeneration  is,  then,  a  miracle.  And  it  is  a  mir- 
acle in  its  character  more  astounding  than  was  the 
resurrection  from  physical  death  at  the  grave  of 
Lazarus.  Of  the  prodigies  which  rendered  memo- 
rable the  journey  of  the  persecuting  Saul,  from  Je- 
rusalem to  Damascus,  the  greatest  of  all  was  the 
removal  of  his  "  stony  heart,"  and  the  substitution 
of  "  an  heart  of  flesh."  The  light  and  the  voice 
from  heaven,  and  the  blindness,  and  its  unearthly 
cure,  surpassed  not,  perhaps,  in  miraculous  grandeur 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  NEW  BIRTH.      263 

the  arrest  of  the  sun  in  its  course.  But  the  conver- 
sion of  the  heart  was  a  miracle  that  required  the 
sufferings  and  death  of  the  incarnate  Deity.  The 
salvation  of  the  soul  could  be  purchased  only  by  the 
blood  of  God. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  age  of  miracles  is  past. 
The  saying  is  not  true.  The  ordinary  miracles  of 
the  Gospel  ceased,  indeed,  about  the  end  of  the  first 
century  of  the  christian  era.  But  the  extraordinary 
miracle  of  the  new  birth  has  pursued  its  noiseless, 
majestic,  onward  course,  scattering  its  demonstra- 
tions throughout  the  world.  All  other  miracles 
have  been  superseded  and  absorbed  in  this  the 
mightiest  of  them  all,  as  "  the  stars  hide  their  di- 
minished heads"  in  the  presence  of  the  king  of  day. 
This  wonder  of  wonders,  coeval  at  least  with  the 
days  of  Abel,  will  maintain  its  triumphal  march  until 
the  angel,  standing  with  his  right  foot  upon  the  sea 
and  his  left  foot  upon  the  earth,  shall  lift  his  hand  to 
heaven  and  swear  by  Him  that  liveth  forever  and 
ever  that  time  shall  be  no  more. 

The  miracle  of  the  new  birth  incontestably  estab- 
lishes the  inspiration  of  the  Sacred  Oracles.  They 
are  replete  with  predictions  of  the  triumphs  of  the 
Gospel  by  regenerating  grace.  Every  new  birth 
is  a  fulfilment  of  scriptural  predictions.     Prophecy 


264  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

fulfilled,  shows  the  inspiration  of  the  prophet.  Un- 
inspired mortality  could  not  penetrate  the  veil  of 
the  future.  The  conversion  of  the  nations  by  the 
potency  of  the  new  birth,  shows  that  the  seers  who 
in  Holy  Writ  foretold  it  centuries  before,  were 
taught  of  God.  The  new  birth  is  an  epitome  of 
the  practical  truths  of  Revelation,  stamped  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  on  the  human  soul.  When  the  be- 
liever meditates  on  his  own  renovated  aspirations, 
and  compares  them  with  the  aspirations  of  the 
pious  David,  or  of  the  consecrated  Paul,  he  has  in- 
ternal evidence  of  their  exact  identity.  "As  in 
water  face  answereth  to  face,"*  so  does  the  image 
reflected  from  himself  answer  to  the  spiritual  origi- 
nal. The  accordance  between  the  miniature  vol- 
ume of  the  regenerated  heart,  and  the  Volume  of 
Inspiration,  demonstrates  that  both  are  of  the  same 
divine  origin. 

The  Gospel  is  the  instrument  by  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  wont  to  effect  the  miracle  of  the  new  birth. 
He  would  not  recognize  this  instrument  as  his  own, 
if  it  was  the  fabrication  of  impostors.  The  Spirit 
of  Truth,  in  his  miracles  of  grace,  would  never 
sanction  an  impious  falsehood.     Every  time  he  ap- 

*  Proverbs  acxvii  19. 


THE    MIRACLE    OF    THE    NEW    BIRTH.  265 

plies  the  Gospel  to  the  regeneration  of  souls,  he 
authenticates  its  inspiration  anew.  He  most  em- 
phatically proclaims  its  divine  origin,  when  he 
sends  it  abroad  among  the  nations  as  the  efficient 
organ  of  universal  evangelization.  Infidelity  will 
scarcely  venture  to  deny  that  the  new  birth,  if  a 
reality,  proves  the  genuineness  of  the  Gospel. 

Regeneration  is  the  seal  of  heaven  stamped  upon 
the  believing  heart.  The  believer,  while  in  the 
exercise  of  gracious  affections,  is  intuitively  con- 
scious of  the  divine  impress.  He  who  has  been 
born  again,  learns  from  the  whispers  of  his  own 
heart,  that  he  is  the  child  of  God.  He  feels  that 
his  Saviour  has  given  him  to  "  eat  of  the  hidden 
manna,"  and  presented  to  him  "  a  white  stone,"  and 
in  the  stone  '*  a  new  name  written."*  "  The  hid- 
den manna"  is  the  banquet  of  redeeming  love. 
The  "  white  stone"  is  the  gem  from  heaven,  where- 
on is  inscribed  his  own  name;  imperceptible,  in- 
deed, to  physical  sight  or  touch,  but  palpable  to  the 
rapt  vision  of  faith. 

We  do  not  mean  to  intimate,  that  the  christian 
convert  is  always  in  the  exercise  of  gracious  affec- 
tions.    In  his  passage  through  the  wilderness  of 

*  Revelation  ii.  17. 
12 


266  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

life,  he  is  sanctified  only  in  part.  As  sin  forfeited 
the  primeval  paradise,  so  it  may  dim  and  chill  the 
renovated  paradise  of  the  believer's  soul ;  it  may 
obscure  and  almost  obliterate  the  celestial  image 
which  regeneration  had  implanted  there;  it  may 
for  months,  perhaps  for  years,  hide  from  his  bewil- 
dered vision,  the  impress  of  heaven's  signet  ring, 
made  on  his  heart  at  the  day  of  his  espousals. 

But  when  the  believer  lives  as  he  ought  to  live, 
he  "  hath  the  witness  in  himself,"*  not  only  of  his 
own  regeneration,  but  also  that  the  Gospel  is  the 
Word  of  God.  He  is  conscious  that  he  has  "passed 
from  death  unto  life,"  by  the  resuscitating  influ- 
ences of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  new  birth  felt  in 
his  own  heart,  endorses  and  authenticates  the  new 
birth  delineated  in  the  Sacred  Volume.  His  natu- 
ral enmity  to  his  Creator  is  changed  into  love.  He 
loves  the  divine  law,  which  once  frowned  upon  him 
with  the  terrors  of  Sinai.  Holiness  is  unveiled  to 
him  in  its  native  beauty.  He  loves  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  He  regards  as  "the  chiefest  among  ten 
thousand,"  Him  in  whom  he  once  saw  "  no  form  nor 
comeliness."  He  feels  that  he  has  been  called  "  out 
of  darkness  into  his  marvellous  light."     With  the 

*  1  John  V.  10. 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  NEW  BIRTH.      267 

convert  in  the  Gospel,  blind  from  his  birth,  he  ex- 
ultingly  exclaims,  "  One  thing  I  know,  that  whereas 
I  was  blind,  now  I  see."  There  are  bright  mo- 
ments when,  with  Job,  he  can  say,  "  I  know  that 
my  Redeemer  liveth ;"  and,  with  Paul,  "  I  know 
whom  I  have  believed."  In  those  moments  his 
faith  in  the  Gospel  depends  not  upon  the  prepon- 
derance of  nicely  balanced  probabilities;  it  is 
passed  into  knowledge;  he  "hath  the  witness  in 
himself" 

The  true  believer  is  "the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  The  Spirit  of  Truth  is  his  Schoolmaster. 
The  indwelling  God  teaches  the  verity  and  power 
of  his  own  Sacred  Word  to  his  humblest  children, 
not  by  the  ordinary  process  of  ratiocination,  but  by 
an  influence  which,  like  the  lightning  of  heaven, 
"  is  felt  though  it  cannot  be  followed."  The  de- 
vout peasant  who  drove  his  "  team  a-field"  in  the 
age  and  country  of  Hume,  would  have  risked  noth- 
ing by  hostile  encounter  with  the  Goliah  of  skepti- 
cism. The  infidel,  indeed,  wielded  in  his  left  hand 
the  vaunted  fallibility  of  human  testimony,  and 
grasped  in  his  right  the  alleged  inflexibility  of  na- 
ture's laws.  To  this  imposing  array,  the  pious 
ploughman  could  interpose  neither  the  blandish- 
ments of  rhetorical  diction,  the  subtileness  of  logic. 


268       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

nor  the  treasures  of  historical  learning.  Yet  with  a 
sincerity  attested  by  moistened  eyes,  he  could 
meekly  lay  on  his  breast  his  labor-hardened  hand, 
and  unfalteringly  avouch  his  intuitive  conscious- 
ness— a  consciousness  imparting  courage  to  brave 
the  torturing  wheel  or  the  cross  of  martyrdom — 
that  he  was  himself  the  recipient  of  an  abiding  mir- 
acle, sure  as  the  noonday  sun,  and  more  stupendous 
than  any  which  had  ever  given  sight  to  physical " 
blindness  or  vitality  to  natural  death. 

The  evidence  of  the  Gospel's  divinity,  derived 
from  the  miracle  of  the  new  birth,  is  not  confined 
to  the  regenerate.  It  appeals  to  every  human 
heart,  regenerate  or  in  a  state  of  nature,  and  its 
appeal  must  force  admittance,  unless  the  entrance 
is  closed  and  barred  by  incorrigible  prejudice. 

Since  the  original  institution  of  the  eucharist, 
hundreds  of  millions  have  partaken  of  that  holy 
ordinance.  The  opinion  has  obtained  currency  in 
the  ranks  of  Protestantism,  that  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic creed  does  not  require  that  conversion  should 
precede  communion.  But  the  error  of  this  opinion 
clearly  appears  from  the  highest  authorities  of  that 
ancient  church.  The  following  are  extracts  from 
the  catechism  of  the  council  of  Trent,  published 
by  the  command  of  Pope  Pius  V. 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  NEW  BIRTH.      269 

"  We  now  come  to  point  out  the  manner  in  which  the 
faithful  should  be  previously  prepared  for  sacramental  com- 
munion. To  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  this  previous 
preparation,  the  example  of  the  Saviour  is  to  be  proposed  to 
the  faithful.  Before  he  gave  to  his  apostles  the  sacrament 
of  his  body  and  blood,  although  they  were  already  clean, 
he  washed  their  feet  to  declare  that  we  must  use  extreme 
diligence  to  bring  with  us  to  its  participation  the  greatest 
integrity  and  innocence  of  soul.  In  the  next  place,  the 
faithful  are  to  undei-stand  that,  as  he  who  approaches  thus 
prepared  and  disposed,  is  adorned  with  the  most  ample 
gifts  of  heavenly  grace :  so  on  the  contrary,  he  who  ap- 
proaches without  this  preparation,  and  without  these  dis- 
positions, not  only  derives  from  it  no  advantage,  but  plunges 
his  own  soul  into  the  most  unutterable  misery." 

"  But  when  it  is  said  that  this  sacrament  imparts  grace, 
it  is  not  intended  to  mean  that  to  receive  this  sacrament 
with  advantage,  it  is  unnecessary  to  be  previously  in  a  state 
of  grace.  Natural  food  can  be  of  no  use  to  a  person  who  is 
already  dead :  and  in  like  manner  the  sacred  mysteries  can 
avail  him  nothing  who  lives  not  in  spirit.  Hence  this  sac- 
rament has  been  instituted  under  the  forms  of  bread  and 
wine,  to  signify  that  the  object  of  its  institution  is,  not  to 
recall  to  life  a  dead  soul,  but  to  preserve  hfe  to  a  hving 
one." 

"  We  should  also  reflect  in  the  silence  of  our  own  hearts 
how  unworthy  we  are  that  God  should  bestow  on  us  this 
divine  gift ;  and  with  the  centurion,  of  whom  our  Lord  de- 
clared, that  he  found  not  so  great  faith  in  Israel,  we  should 
exclaim,  '  Lord,  I  am  not  worthy  that  thou  shouldst  enter 


270  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE, 

under  my  roof.'  We  should  also  put  the  question  to  our- 
selves, whether  we  can  truly  say  with  Peter,  'Lord,  thou 
knowest  that  I  love  thee ;'  and  should  recollect,  that  he 
who  sat  down  at  the  marriage  feast  without  a  nuptial  gar- 
ment, was  cast  into  exterior  darkness,  and  condemned  to 
eternal  torments."* 

It  has,  then,  been  from  the  beginning,  the  estab- 
lished doctrine  of  Christendom,  that  participation 
in  the  Lord's  Supper  is  a  public  profession  of  having 
"  passed  from  death  unto  life."  By  the  act  of  com- 
munion, each  communicant,  for  himself,  has  made  his 
solemn  declaration  in  the  presence  of  men,  angels, 
and  God,  that,  according  to  his  best  knowledge  and 
belief,  founded  on  his  own  christian  experience,  he 
had  become  the  favored  recipient  of  the  great  ren- 
ovating miracle.  This  declaration  was,  at  least, 
equal  in  solemnity  to  an  oath  in  a  court  of  justice. 
What  is  it  which  gives  its  sanction  to  a  judicial 
oath  ?  It  is  not  the  mere  touching  of  the  book  by 
the  hand  or  the  lips ;  it  is  not  the  sign,  but  the  thing 
signified ;  it  is  the  tremendous  appeal  to  the 
Searcher  of  hearts,  that  imparts  to  it  its  sacred 
character.     And  is  not  the  sacramental  declaration 


*  Catechism  of  Council  of  Trent,  Sacrament  of  the  Eucharist 
Donovan's  Translation,  pages  165,  167,  169.  ■«|, 


THE    MIRACLE    OF    THE    NEW    BIRTH.  271 

an  appeal  to  the  Searcher  of  hearts,  made  under  cir- 
cumstances at  least  as  awful  as  those  which  attend 
the  judicial  attestation  ?  Is  the  altar  of  our  religion 
a  less  holy  place  than  the  bar  of  our  courts  ?  Is  the 
tasting  of  the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  Son  of  God, 
even  symbolically,  less  heart- thrilling  and  soul- 
binding  than  the  touch  of  the  cover  of  his  book  ? 
True,  the  sacramental  deposition  is  not,  like  the  ju- 
ridical, written  with  pen  and  ink  on  parchment  or 
paper ;  but  it  is  registered  by  the  recording  angel 
on  the  everlasting  records  of  heaven. 

These  christian  depositions  are  the  sacred  relics 
of  more  than  eighteen  centuries  ;  they  come  up  to 
us  from  every  clime  and  every  tongue.  They  are 
the  testimonials  of  the  devout  living,  and  of  the 
pious  dead;  they  are  wafted  from  each  christian 
temple ;  they  ascend  from  each  christian  cemetery 
and  church-yard ;  they  are  echoed  by  the  ancient 
ruins  of  Asiatic  cities,  and  reverberated  by  the  val- 
leys of  the  young  West ;  Ethiopia  lifts  her  confirm- 
atory voice,  and  it  is  answered  from  the  islands  of 
the  remotest  Pacific.  If  to  these  Gospel  depositions 
we  superadd  the  long  train  of  saints  who  preceded 
the  birth  of  Christ,  we  shall  find  the  witnesses  to 
the  reality  of  the  new  birth  swollen  to  a  host  that 
baffles  the  computation  of  arithmetic. 


272  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

And  how  is  the  unregenerate  inquirer,  professing 
candor,  yet  hovering  between  the  twihght  of  doubt 
and  the  daylight  of  truth,  to  meet  and  overcome 
these  mountains  of  depositions  ?  If  he  is  not  ready 
to  admit,  that  they  prove  beyond  peradventure  the 
miracle  of  the  new  birth,  and  consequently  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Gospel,  he  must  maintain,  either 
that  these  hundreds  of  millions  of  deposing  wit- 
nesses have  been  wilful  deceivers,  or  else  that  they 
were  themselves  all  miserably  self-deceived.  It  is 
not  enough  for  him  to  show  that  many  hypocritical 
or  beguiled  professors  have  mingled  in  "  the  sacra- 
mental host  of  God's  elect;"  he  must,  to  palHate 
his  indecision,  taint  with  hypocrisy  or  self-delusion, 
each  and  every  individual  in  the  whole  mighty  mass 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  saints.  Infidelity 
must  bend  or  break,  if,  along  the  track  of  time,  a 
single  unimpeached  and  unimpeachable  witness  is 
found  to  confirm  the  prodigy  of  regeneration,  and 
the  consequent  divinity  of  the  sacred  oracles. 

None,  it  may  be  presumed,  will  deliberately  con- 
tend that  the  almost  countless  millions  of  deponents 
to  the  miracle  of  the  new  birth,  have  unanimously 
banded  together  in  a  base  conspiracy  to  deceive 
human  kind.  Extravagant  would  be  the  supposi- 
tion that  a  confederacy  of  such  extent,  compounded 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  NEW  BIRTH.     273 

of  hostility  to  earth  and  impiety  to  heaven,  had 
pursued,  without  detection,  its  triumphant  march 
of  conscious  guilt  for  near  six  thousand  years, 
"  with  an  eye  that  never  winks  and  a  wing  that 
never  tires  ;"  traversing  with  more  than  quixotic 
zeal  all  lands  and  seas  in  quest,  not  of  gain  or  ag- 
grandizement, but  of  persecution,  torture,  and  mar- 
tyrdom; proffering  nothing  to  its  depraved  adhe- 
rents but  a  life  of  hypocrisy  here,  and,  unless  the 
grave  is  the  place  of  eternal  sleep,  sure  and  inter- 
minable perdition  hereafter. 

Can  infidelity  successfully  resort  to  the  other 
branch  of  the  alternative,  and  maintain  that  the 
almost  innumerable  millions  of  deponents  to  the 
miracle  of  the  new  birth,  have  been  themselves  the 
miserable  victims  of  self-delusion,  without  one  soli- 
tary exception  in  any  age,  language,  or  country  ? 
We  have  seen  that  each  christian  professor,  when 
first  admitted  to  the  banquet  of  redeeming  grace, 
deposed  for  himself  individually,  that  according  to 
his  best  knowledge  and  belief,  he  had  been  made 
the  subject  of  the  great  renovating  marvel.  His 
attestation  was  not  prompted  by  momentary  im- 
pulse, or  by  the  ebullition  of  sudden  feeling. 
Wefeks,  perhaps  months,  of  rigid  and  honest  self- 
examination,  doubtless  preceded  this  the  most  mo- 
12* 


274      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

mentous  act  of  his  life.  He  paused ;  he  deliberated ; 
he  deposed.  The  subject  attested  required  no  com- 
pass of  historical  erudition,  or  profound  scientific 
research.  He  had  but  to  compare  with  diligence  " 
and  candor  the  little  volume  of  his  own  heart  with 
the  Volume  of  Revelation.  For  this  examination 
the  peasant  was  as  competent  as  the  philosopher. 

At  every  succeeding  return  of  the  feast  of  love, 
the  christian  professor  confirmed  the  sacramental 
deposition  made  by  him  at  his  first  espousal. 
Months  may  have  intervened  between  the  succes- 
sive ordinances ;  but  months  of  renewed  and  pro- 
found deliberation  severed  him  not  from  his  firm- 
seated  hopes.  Sometimes,  indeed,  he  was  ready  to 
succumb  under  the  burden  of  indwelling  sin.  In 
his  christian  warfare,  he  was  conscious  of  viewless 
foes  walking  in  darkness ;  he  was  conscious,  too, 
of  a  viewless  Preserver.  When  rescued  amidst 
the  billows  of  life's  tempestuous  ocean,  he  knew, 
like  Peter,  that  it  was  the  hand  of  his  Master  which 
saved  him.  Each  advance  in  experimental  relig- 
ion, strengthened  his  evidence  of  the  regenerating 
miracle.  Death  came  at  last  to  translate  him  to  ^'^' 
the  skies.  His  dying  deposition  was  made.  It 
may  have  been  sealed  in  blood  drawn  from  hint  by 
the  nails  of  the  cross,  or  by  the  devouring  teeth  of 


-.THE  MIEACLE  OF  THE  NEW  BIRTH.     275 

savage  beasts ;  it  may  have  been  perfected  at  the 
martyr's  fire,  Hghted  up  as  his  chariot  to  heaven ; 
it  may  have  been  consummated  in  the  meditative 
and  peaceful  chamber  of  protracted  illness.  Wher- 
ever made,  the  final  deposition  of  the  expiring  saint 
breathed  forth  no  longer  mere  belief  His  confi- 
dent hope  was  transformed  to  certain  knowledge. 
His  faith  was  swallowed  up  in  vision,  even  before 
he  bade  the  world  farewell. 

The  evidence  to  the  miracle  of  the  new  birth, 
derived  from  the  experience  of  the  New  Testament 
church,  had  been  anticipated  by  the  experience  of 
the  earlier  believers.  They  had  prospectively  eaten 
of  the  same  bread,  and  drank  of  the  same  wine, 
which  were  afterwards  distributed  by  Jesus  Christ 
to  his  disciples  in  the  upper  chamber  at  Jerusalem. 
Enoch  and  Abraham,  and  the  whole  brotherhood 
of  the  Old  Testament  saints,  were  washed  in  the 
blood  of  propitiation,  long  before  it  began  to  flow 
in  the  veins  of  the  infant  Emmanuel.  They  be- 
held afar  off  the  day  of  the  Son  of  man ;  and  in 
anticipation  of  his  advent,  "confessed  that  they 
were  strangers  and  pilgrims  on  the  earth."  They 
solemnly  professed  to  have  been  "  born  again,"  and 
to  have  "passed  from  death  unto  life."  How 
touching,  how  demonstrative,  how  overpowering 


276       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

are  the  depositions  of  Job,  of  David,  and  of  Isaiah 
to  the  reality  of  the  great  renovating  prodigy !  The 
phenomenon  of  the  nev^  birth  vv^as  known  to  Abel 
when  he  "  offered  unto  God  a  more  excellent  sacri- 
fice than  Cain."*  It  has  since  been  manifested  to 
the  faithful  of  every  age,  in  every  country.  Hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  regenerated  souls  could  no 
more  have  been  unanimously  mistaken  in  the  ex- 
istence of  the  phenomenon,  than  they  could  have 
been  mistaken  in  the  existence  of  the  sun  in  the 
firmament. 

The  honest  inquirer  after  truth  will  be  confirmed 
in  the  sure  conclusion,  that  the  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  depositions  to  the  reality  of  the  new  birth, 
were  not  the  offspring  of  self-delusion,  by  atten- 
tively considering  the  variety  in  the  stations  and 
intellectual  qualifications  of  the  deponents.  The 
witnesses  to  the  miracle  of  regeneration,  have  risen 
up  from  every  class  and  every  progressive  grade 
of  society.  The  prince  and  the  peasant ;  the  cul- 
tivator of  science  and  the  tiller  of  the  soil;  the 
mathematician  and  the  mechanic ;  the  poet  and  the 
philosopher ;  the  ardent  and  the  dispassionate ;  the 
enthusiast  and  the  stoic ;  the  recluse  and  the  man 

*  Hebrews  xL  4. 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  NEW  BIRTH.      277 

of  the  world ;  the  barbarous  and  the  civiHzed ;  have 
all  attested  the  prodigy  of  regenerating  grace 
wrought  in  their  own  souls.  And  were  all  these 
witnesses,  so  diverse  in  social  grade,  in  intellectual 
cast,  in  mental  acquisitions,  in  temperament  of  the 
heart,  the  victims  alike  of  protracted  self-delusion  ? 
Were  the  walkers  with  God  of  the  early  East,  de- 
ceivers of  themselves  from  the  time  of  their  sup- 
posed conversions  to  the  hours  of  their  deaths? 
Were  the  holy  melodies  of  Jesse's  son  but  the  aber- 
rations of  a  mind  diseased  ?  Were  the  prophetic 
visions  of  the  rapt  seers  but  the  hallucinations  of 
distempered  imaginations?  Did  the  fishermen  of 
Judea  but  dream  when  they  thought  they  saw  the 
transfiguration  on  the  mount,  and  felt  in  their  own 
souls  the  illumination  of  the  Holy  Ghost?  Was 
Stephen  in  a  trance  only,  when,  praying  for  his 
murderers,  he  "  looked  up  steadfastly  into  heaven 
and  saw  the  glory  of  God,  and  Jesus  standing  on 
the  right  hand  of  God  ?"*  Was  Paul — the  accom- 
plished scholar — the  profound  thinker — the  over- 
powering reasoner — the  more  than  Demosthenes 
of  sacred  eloquence — but  an  insane  enthusiast  from 
his  journey  to  Damascus  until  his  death  of  torture 

^.  *  Acts  vil  55. 


278  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

in  the  gardens  of  Nero  ?  Has  every  soldier  in  the 
glorious  army  of  martyrs  been  led  to  the  cross,  the 
lions,  the  rack,  or  the  stake,  spell-bound  in  a  delu- 
sion of  his  own  forging  ?  Over  the  sublime  intel- 
lects of  Paschal,  and  Grotius,  and  Boyle,  and  New- 
ton, and  Hale,  and  Edwards,  and  Wilberforce,  and 
Chalmers,  did  an  eclipse  unceasingly  hang,  from 
the  time  of  their  spiritual  renovations,  gathering 
increasing  darkness  as  they  approached  the  portal 
of  everlasting  rest  ? 

The  prodigy  of  regeneration  utterly  annihilates 
the  bold  assumption,  that  miracles  are  opposed  to 
the  experience  of  mankind.  With  the  miraculous 
phenomenon  of  the  new  birth — to  which  all  other 
deviations  from  the  established  laws  of  nature  were 
but  subordinate  and  subsidiary — human  experience 
has  been  familiar  for  thousands  of  years.  From  the 
days  of  John  Knox,  Scotland  itself  had  been  dis- 
tinguished by  copious  effusions  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Hume  lived,  and  blasphemed,  and  died,  in  the  midst 
of  signs  and  wonders.  Had  he  cast  aside  the  dis- 
colored and  distorting  glasses  of  unbelief,  he  must 
have  seen,  even  in  his  own  native  land,  abounding 
demonstrations  of  the  chief  of  miracles.  Since  his 
era,  the  great  renovating  prodigy  has  achieved 
triumphs  matched  only  by  those  of  the  apostolic 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  NEW  BIRTH.      279 

age.  Regenerating  grace  is  the  almighty  sceptre 
of  the  Prince  of  peace,  by  which,  in  the  fulness  of 
time,  he  will  miraculously  accomplish  all  the  glo- 
rious purposes  of  his  incarnation,  and  extend  his 
dominion  "  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river 
unto  the  ends  of  the  earth."* 

*  Psalms  Ixxii.  8. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   MORAL   INOONGEUITIES    OF   MAN. 

Man  in  his  moral  being  destitute  of  harmony  of  organization  belong- 
ing to  other  creations  of  God — Is  compound  of  meanness  and 
majesty — at  once  brutal  and  godlike — Elements  of  his  contrari- 
ous  nature  in  collision  with  each  other — Philosophy  could  not 
explain  the  enigma — Bible  explains  it — Man  made  upright  and 
pure — but  sinned  and  fell — Thoughts  on  the  apostasy — The  fall 
the  only  solution  of  the  mysteries  of  our  being — Sin  unnatural 
evil — Usurper  of  human  heart — Man  an  enemy  to  God — hence 
he  takes  his  name  in  vain— and  -worships  idols — Man  not  origin- 
ally made  a  God-hater  by  God  himself — Conscience  and  sin  not 
twin  brothers  of  the  same  birth — Gospel's  solution  of  mysteries 
of  our  being,  proof  of  its  divinity — Cause  suggested  of  God's  de- 
lay in  final  punishment  of  sin. 

In  the  constituents  of  humanity  there  is  not 
found  the  harmony  of  organization  discoverable  in 
the  structure  of  inferior  animals.  The  lord  of  this 
lower  world  is  compounded  of  heterogeneous  and 
jarring  elements.  Of  him  the  great  poet  of  nature 
said ;  "  What  a  piece  of  work  is  man !  how  noble 
in  reason !  how  infinite  in  faculties !  in  form  and 
moving  how  express  and  admirable !  in  action  how 
like  an  angel !  in  apprehension  how  like  a  God !" 
The  poetic  picture  is  truthful.  So  is  the  delinea- 
tion of  man  in  the  scriptural  pages,  where  he  is 


THE    MORAL    INCONGRUITIES    OF    MAN.  281 

represented  as  saying,  "  to  corruption,  Thou  art  my 
father  ;  to  the  worm,  Thou  art  my  mother  and  my 
sister/'*  With  the  tiger's  ferocity,  he  commingles 
"  the  milk  of  human  kindness  ;"  he  is  a  strange  com- 
pound of  meanness  and  of  majesty  ;  at  once  brutal 
and  godlike.  The  lightning  of  heaven  has  become 
his  submissive  apprentice.  And  yet  this  master  of 
the  oak-cleaving  bolt  has  bowed  himself  down  in 
abject  worship  to  stocks  and  stones,  to  "  birds  and 
four-footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things." 

Man  is  an  anomaly  in  the  creation.  In  all  the  other 
visible  works  of  God,  harmony  of  organization  is  the 
distinctive  feature.  It  imparts  majesty  and  grace  to 
each  wheeling  orb  of  the  solar  and  stellar  systems  ; 
it  forms  the  music  of  the  spheres.  As  we  pass 
downward  to  the  humblest  thing  that  lays  claim  to 
animal  life,  we  find  harmony  of  organization  in  each 
descending  grade.  Every  bird  that  wings  the  air, 
every  four-footed  beast  that  roams  the  field,  every 
fish  that  swims  the  sea,  every  worm  that  crawls 
upon  the  earth,  is  perfect  "  after  his  kind."  In  the 
vegetable  province,  too,  harmony  of  organization  is 
stamped  on  every  tree,  shrub,  plant  and  flower,  as 
the  sure  signet  of  the  almighty  hand.  Even  in  the 
mineral  kingdom,  each  substance  proclaims,  by  the 

*  Job  xvii.  14. 


282       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

harmony  of  its  organization,  that  God  is  its  author. 
From  this  great  law  of  nature,  man  is  a  mysterious 
exception.  In  him  wild  disorder  ever  reigns ;  be- 
tween the  bestial  and  the  divine  elements  of  his 
being,  an  intestine  warfare  is  ceaselessly  maintained. 
Thus  heterogeneous  and  discordant  in  his  com- 
position, man  is  "  like  the  troubled  sea  when  it  can- 
not rest,  whose  waters  cast  up  mire  and  dirt."* 
The  ox,  when  he  has  satisfied  his  hunger,  and  slaked 
his  thirst,  deliberately  chews  the  cud  of  content- 
ment as  he  reposes  under  the  shade  of  the  spreading 
oak.  Contentment  awaits  not  the  lord  of  the  lower 
creation.  Ambition  proclaims,  "  It  is  not  in  me  f 
the  wealth  of  CrcESUs  could  not  buy  it ;  the  cottage 
knows  it  not,  and  it  is  a  stranger  to  the  palace. 
Heathen  philosophy  once  sought  to  explain  the 
phenomenon  of  our  contrarious  nature  by  the  sup- 
positioji  that  each  of  human  kind  has  two  distinct  * 
souls,  the  one  inclined  to  soar,  and  the  other  to 
sink ;  the  one  bent  on  the  abject,  the  other  aspiring 
to  the  sublime.  The  Persian  Zoroaster  vainly  en- 
deavored to  solve  the  enigma  by  placing  over  the 
race  of  mortals  two  ruling  and  discordant  deities, 
personifying  respectively  the  two  opposing  prin- 
ciples of  good  and  of  evil. 


jS^'' 


Isaiah  Ivii.  20. 


THE    MORAL    INCONGRUITIES    OP    MAN.  283 

The  contrarieties  of  humanity  constitute  a  prod- 
igy at  which  philosophy  has  gazed  and  wondered 
ever  since  she  began  to  think.  But  with  all  her 
boasted  sagacity,  she  was  unable  to  expound  the 
marvel.  Without  Revelation's  clue  man  stands 
forth,  in  the  midst  of  the  wonders  of  the  visible 
universe,  himself  the  greatest  wonder.  It  is  the 
Bible  alone  that  can  instruct  him  in  the  deep  and 
dark  mysteries  of  his  own  being.  The  scriptural 
solution  is  a  simple  one.  It  announces  that  in  the 
beginning  God  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath 
of  life  from  the  pure  fountain  of  his  own  vitality ; 
that,  made  in  the  image,  and  after  the  likeness  of 
his  Creator,  man  speedily  apostatized  and  fell  from 
his  primeval  state  of  innocence  ;  and  that  sin 

"  Brought  death  into  the  world  and  all  our  woe." 

That  man  is  now  a  sinful  creature,  is  a  truth 
written,  as  it  were,  with  a  sunbeam  upon  the  tablets 
of  the  human  heart.  Candor  must  needs  read  it 
there  if  she  will  but  turn  her  vision  inward.  That 
God  is  a  wise  and  holy  being  is  another  truth  which 
the  modern  skeptic  will  not  presume  to  deny.  Rev- 
elation, though  it  touches  not  the  heart,  must,  never- 
theless, enlighten  the  understanding  of  all  who  are 
brought  up  in  a  christian  land.     None  thus  enlight- 


284  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

ened  dare  venture  to  predicate  of  the  Ruler  of  the 
universe  the  vices  and  follies  imputed  to  its  fabu- 
lous deities  by  ancient  polytheism.  Modern  infi- 
delity, educated  in  a  christian  country,  has  not  the 
courage  to  be  altogether  pagan.  She  is  obliged, 
however  reluctantly,  to  array  her  god  in  the  attri- 
butes of  wisdom  and  holiness.  Instead  of  degrad- 
ing him  to  the  rank  of  Jupiter  or  Mars,  her  very 
pride  leads  her  to  claim  for  him  affinity  in  moral 
perfections  to  the  Jehovah  of  the  Bible. 

As,  then,  the  Ruler  of  the  universe  is  a  being  of 
infinite  wisdom  and  holiness,  reason  itself  must  in- 
fer that  he  would  not  with  his  own  right  hand  have 
formed  a  race  of  sinful  creatures,  and  fitted  up  for 
their  inheritance  this  fair  province  of  the  universal 
empire.  Not  even  an  earthly  prince  would  volun- 
tarily incorporate  into  his  kingdom  a  colony  of 
men  so  utterly  depraved  as  to  render  it  certain  that 
they  must  become  disturbers  of  his  peace  and  rebels 
against  his  authority.  Treason  is  a  weed  that  may 
spring  up  in  the  goodliest  soil;  but  a  wise  and 
righteous  governor  would  not  of  his  own  free 
choice  transplant  it  into  the  heart  of  his  dominions. 
The  supposition  that  God  was  the  original  author 
of  sin,  is  a  libel  upon  his  acknowledged  perfections. 
The  scriptural  account  of  the  primitive  innocency 


THE    MORAL    INCONGRUITIES    OF    MAN.  285 

of  human  kind  is,  therefore,  confirmed  by  the  de- 
ductions of  enlightened  reason. 

If,  then,  man  came  pure  and  perfect  from  the 
hands  of  his  Creator,  whence  arose  the  fearful  apos- 
tasy which  stained  the  earliest  pages  of  secular 
history,  and  has  changed  the  paradise  of  earth  into 
a  vast  chaos  of  moral  ruins  ?  This  is  an  enigma 
which  reason  could  never  have  solved.  But  rea- 
son, enhghtened  by  the  Bible,  ought  to  perceive 
and  feel  the  justness  of  the  inspired  solution.  Man 
fell,  because  man  was  created  a  free  agent.  From 
the  like  cause  fell  the  angels.  The  celestial  spirits 
"  which  kept  not  their  first  estate,"  and  the  prime- 
val ancestors  of  our  race,  became  sinners,  not  by 
creation  or  from  compulsive  destiny,  but  from  their 
own  spontaneous  choice. 

And  how  could  infinite  wisdom  and  infinite  holi- 
ness have  prevented  the  catastrophe  either  in  heaven 
or  on  earth,  except  by  abridging  the  freedom  of 
creature  volition?  But  without  freedom  of  voli- 
tion, angels  and  men  would  have  been  only  ma- 
chines. God  made  his  creatures  to  worship  and 
serve  their  Creator.  But  how  could  they  have 
rendered  him  acceptable  worship  or  service  with- 
out freedom  of  will?  What  pleasure  would  the 
Infinite  Spirit  have  derived  from  the   incense  or 


286  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

hallelujahs  of  mere  breathing,  moving,  speaking 
machinery  ?  It  is  the  w^ill  that  constitutes  the 
essence  of  piety  below  and  of  holiness  above.  But 
there  can  be  no  exercise  of  the  will  where  lib- 
erty of  choice  is  wanting.  If  sin  emanated  from 
the  abuse  of  the  freedom  of  creature  volition,  the 
abridgment  of  that  freedom  would,  doubtless,  have 
caused  a  greater  evil  in  the  empire  of  God.  Lib- 
erty is  the  choicest  boon  imparted  by  the  Creator 
to  his  intelligent  creation.  It  constitutes  the  charm 
of  earth  and  the  bliss  of  heaven.  Doubtless  Ga- 
briel was  just  as  free  as  the  prince  of  darkness  to 
have  apostatized.  We  suppose  that  nothing  cre- 
ated, save  those  purchased  by  the  blood  of  Christ, 
is  secure  against  the  possibility  of  falling. 

Unbelief  has  cavilled  at  the  hypothesis  of  Adam's 
posterity  suffering  from  the  delinquency  of  their 
primitive  ancestors.  But  how  could  that  conse- 
quence have  been  averted  ?  The  sin  of  Eden  rad- 
ically polluted  the  stock  of  humanity  in  all  its  ele- 
ments, physical  and  moral.  The  children  of  that 
polluted  lineage,  necessarily  participated  of  its  im- 
purities ;  they  were  the  natural  heirs  of  the  ills  of 
which  sin  was  the  prolific  parent ;  nothing  but  a 
miracle  could  have  saved  them  from  falling  with 
the  stock  from  whence  they  issued.     By  the  sure 


THE    MORAL    INCONGRUITIES    OF    MAN.  287 

course  of  nature,  Ethiopians  must  be  born  of  Ethi- 
opians. Had  spiritual  generation  been  ordained 
for  hell,  devils  must  needs  have  begotten  devils. 
Spirits  of  light  and  of  holiness  could  not  have 
sprung  from  the  foul  embraces  of  fiends. 

Man's  apostasy  from  pristine  holiness,  is  the  only 
key  that  can  unlock  the  mysteries  of  his  present 
condition.  In  strict  accordance  with  the  scriptu- 
ral narrative  of  his  original  innocency  and  subse- 
quent fall  are  the  existing  phenomena  of  our  being. 
The  proofs  of  some  great  spiritual  convulsion  in 
the  moral  world,  are  no  less  cogent  than  the  proofs 
of  some  great  physical  convulsions  in  the  natural. 
In  the  chaos  of  fallen  humanity,  relics  are  every- 
where to  be  found  of  its  primeval  grandeur.  Thouc^h 
a  ruined  creature,  man  is  majestic  even  in  ruins. 
The  fall  has  impaired,  but  not  utterly  effaced,  the 
divine  image  stamped  on  him  at  his  creation. 
Hence  his  lofty,  though  unsatisfied  aspirations; 
hence  earth's  inability  to  fill  his  capacious  soul; 
hence  his  ceaseless  longings  after  immortality,  even 
where  the  Gospel  never  beamed,  and  where  the 
grave  had  cast  its  impenetrable  shade  over  the  un- 
discovered country  beyond  it. 

How  noble  must  have  been  that  being  for  whom 
God  spent  six  days  in  creating  a  world  !     Yet  with 


y 


288      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

the  pristine  divinity  of  our  nature,  sin  has  commin- 
gled its  ow^n  debasing  alloy ;  and  he  who  is  the 
"  wisest,  brightest,"  is  also  the  "  meanest"  animal 
of  the  visible  universe.  The  riddle  of  mortality 
has  been  the  marvel  of  almost  sixty  centuries ;  its 
labyrinths  can  be  explored  only  by  the  lamp  of 
Revelation.  Aided  by  that  lamp,  the  explorer, 
though  he  may  doubt  whether  it  was  lighted  from 
above,  will  find  the  vestiges  of  the  fall  even  more 
palpable  than  the  vestiges  of  the  flood.  The  vol- 
ume of  human  nature  echoes  back  the  truth  of  the 
Volume  of  Grace. 

The  candid  inquirer,  if  he  will  carefully  dissect 
and  examine  the  constituent  elements  of  sin,  must 
discover  intrinsic  proofs  that  it  was  an  usurper  of 
the  human  heart,  and  not  its  original  sovereign. 

Sin  is  an  unnatural  evil.  It  is  an  intruder  into 
our  sphere.  In  all  her  works  nature  teaches  obe- 
dience to  superior  power.  Each  planet  of  the  solar 
system  obeys  the  parent  sun ;  the  parent  sun  him- 
self, with  all  his  train  of  satellites,  yields  fealty  to 
some  mightier  orb ;  the  whole  panorama  of  worlds 
hails  the  benignant  domination  of  their  common 
Architect.  As  we  pass  downward  to  the  inferior 
ranks  of  animal  existence,  we  still  find  obedience  to 
superior  power  the  paramount  law  of  nature.     In 


THE    MORAL    INCONGRUITIES    OF    MAN.  289 

the  brute  creation  instinct  is  heaven's  vicegerent ; 
and  from  its  ruling  sway  where  is  the  bird,  or  four- 
footed  beast,  or  creeping  thing  that  withholds  its 
allegiance  ?  The  analogies  of  the  visible  creation 
confirm  the  scriptural  teaching,  that  this  first  and 
universal  law  of  nature  was  incorporated  into  the 
original  organization  of  man.  Nor  was  his  subse- 
quent rebellion  against  rightful  sovereignty  less 
unnatural  and  monstrous  than  would  be  the  phe- 
nomenon 

"  Should  earth  unbalanced  from  her  orbit  fly, 
Planets  and  suns  run  lawless  through  the  sky." 

Sin  is  enmity  to  God.  Disguise  it  as  he  will,  the 
unregenerate  man  is  a  foe  to  his  Creator.  He  may 
view  with  complacency  a  poetic  deity  of  his  own 
fashioning;  he  might  have  loved  the  Bacchus  or 
the  Mars,  the  Venus  or  the  Minerva  of  pagan  my- 
thology ;  but  from  a  God  of  awful  justice,  inflexible 
truth,  and  immaculate  holiness,  "  that  will  by  no 
means  clear  the  guilty,"  his  spirit  turns  away  in 
terror  and  aversion.  In  open  breach  of  the  divine 
command,  he  wantonly  takes  God's  holy  name  in 
vain.  This  offence  to  the  personal  dignity  of  heav- 
en's King  lacks  even  the  miserable  plea  of  temp- 
tation. It  gratifies  no  passion ;  it  satiates  no  lust ;  it 
13 


290  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

is  but  the  spontaneous  outbreak  of  ever- restless  ani- 
mosity against  the  High  and  Holy  One.  Had  the 
heathen  code  forbidden  the  familiar  use  of  the  name 
of  Jove,  the  interdiction  would  have  found  no  op- 
position in  the  carnal  heart.  We  are  not  wont  to 
utter  without  veneration  the  name  of  a  Howard 
or  a  Washington.  But  in  defiance  of  the  terrors  of 
Sinai,  the  name  of  the  august  Ancient  of  Days  is 
made,  in  christian  lands,  the  jest  of  the  public  street, 
and  the  seasoner  of  bar-room  ribaldry. 

Idolatry  is  the  lineal  offspring  of  deep-rooted  hos- 
tility to  Jehovah.  It  is  an  offence  of  the  heart, 
rather  than  of  the  head.  The  nations  became  idol- 
aters, not  so  much  from  sottishness  of  intellect,  as 
because  "  they  did  not  Uke  to  retain  God  in  their 
knowledge."  Men  bowed  down  to  stocks  and  to 
stones,  to  leeks  and  to  onions,  less  in  ignorance,  than 
in  contempt  of  that  omnipresent  Essence,  in  whom 
they  lived,  and  moved,  and  had  their  being ;  whom 
they  heard  in  the  warbling  grove,  and  in  the  thun- 
der's roar;  whom  they  saw  in  every  green,  and 
every  snow-clad  field,  in  each  clear  evening's  can- 
opy, and  in  each  bright  morning's  sun. 

And  was  this  deadly  enmity  to  its  Creator  an 
original  element  of  the  human  soul  ?  Was  man  in 
his  primeval  organization  made  a  God- hater  by  God 


THE    MORAL    INCONGRUITIES.  OP    MAN.  291 

himself?  Did  Infinite  Holiness  form  a  new  world, 
and  light  up  its  "  queen  of  night,"  and  its  "  king  of 
day,"  for  the  accommodation  of  a  race  of  intelli- 
gencies,  constituted  rebels,  blasphemers,  and  idola- 
ters, by  the  fundamental  laws  of  their  being  ?  Such 
a  supposition  would  impugn  alike  the  principles  of 
revealed  and  of  natural  theism.  The  oracles  of 
reason,  and  the  oracles  of  Revelation,  conduct  to  the 
self-same  conclusion.  God  made  man  upright  and 
holy,  but  sin  beguiled  and  destroyed  him.  In  the 
beginning  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  sowed  good 
wheat  in  his  fields ;  yet  tares  sprung  up  and  choked 
it.  And  when  we  behold  the  poisonous  weeds  cov- 
ering and  desolating  the  face  of  the  earth,  we  must 
in  candor  say,  as  the  Lord  himself  said  in  the  Gos- 
pel parable,  "  an  enemy  hath  done  this." 

Conscience  is  an  element  of  man,  unknown  to 
the  subordinate  creation.  It  is  an  active  and  pow- 
erful principle  of  human  nature,  forming  often  the 
check  of  vice,  where  no  other  restraint  could  oper- 
ate. It  was  ordained  the  sentinel  of  heaven  in  the 
bosom  of  mortals.  Outliving  the  ravages  of  the 
great  moral  destroyer,  it  has  existed  in  every  age, 
and  been  felt  in  every  land.  The  contrariety  be- 
tween conscience  and  sin,  strongly  indicates  that 
they  were  not  twin  brothers,  brought  into  being  by 


293  THE    G9SPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

the  same  effort  of  creative  power.  Their  discor- 
dant qualities  betray  a  diversity  of  origin ;  the  one 
bears  the  mark  of  heaven,  the  other  the  stamp  of 
hell.  Unbiased  reason  must  perceive  and  feel  the 
scriptural  truth,  that  it  was  the  fall  which  intro- 
duced sin  into  our  sphere,  while  conscience  is  a 
surviving  ray  of  the  divinity  originally  imparted  to 
the  lord  of  the  terrestrial  creation. 

There  is  a  completeness  in  the  scriptural  solution 
of  our  contrarious  state,  which  proves  the  solution 
to  be  the  work  of  God.  It  bears  no  marks  of  hu- 
man littleness  or  contrivance.  It  possesses  an  orig- 
inality, grandeur,  simplicity,  and  truthfulness,  de- 
monstrative of  its  heavenly  source.  Reason  itself, 
enlightened  though  unregenerated  by  the  Bible, 
must  perceive  that  a  creature,  originally  formed  in 
the  divine  image,  and  subsequently  corrupted  and 
debased  by  sin,  would  be  likely  to  exhibit  the  same 
discordant  phenomena  everywhere  exhibited  by  the 
generations  of  men.  And  such  a  creature  must  of 
necessity  be  restless  as  the  troubled  sea.  At  en- 
mity with  his  Maker,  it  would  be  impossible  that 
he  should  be  in  amity  with  himself 

The  scriptural  explanation  of  the  enigma  of  our 
moral  condition,  is  decisive  proof  that  the  Bible 
was  inspired  by  God.     Sound  was  the  logic  of  the 


THE    MORAL    INCONGRUITIES    OF    MAN.  293 

Samaritan  woman,  when,  leaving  her  water-pot  at 
Jacob's  well,  she  went  into  the  city  and  proclaimed 
to  her  astonished  acquaintance,  "  Come  see  a  man 
which  told  me  all  things  that  ever  I  did :  is  not 
this  the  Christ  ?"*  His  startling  communications 
well  attested  the  presence  of  one  who  knew  the 
secrets  of  the  heart.  But  not  less  impervious  to 
mortal  ken  were  the  profound  mysteries  of  our 
contrarious  nature.  Had  the  Bible  been  sustained 
by  no  miraculous  demonstrations,  and  had  it  con- 
tained no  other  preternatural  revelation,  its  solution 
of  these  otherwise  inexplicable  mysteries  would 
have  authenticated  its  claim  to  divinity. 

Profane  history  has  recorded  that,  in  the  first 
century  of  Christianity,  the  superb  cities  of  Pom- 
peii and  Herculaneum  were  buried  fathoms  deep 
by  a  sudden  eruption  of  Vesuvius.  The  calamity 
was  contrary  to  experience ;  the  cities  had  passed 
scathless  through  fourteen  centuries,  without  any 
unfriendly  demonstration  from  their  seemingly 
peaceful  neighbor.  Nor  has  the  mountain  since 
disgorged  a  fiery  deluge  of  the  like  awful  magni- 
tude. Skeptical  philosophy,  bound  by  its  creed  to 
reject  whatever  is  opposed  to  experience,  might, 

*  John  iv.  29. 


294  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

perhaps,  ere  this,  have  begun  to  regard  the  appal- 
ling narrative  of  the  volcanic  devastation  as  a  fa- 
ble, or  at  least  an  exaggeration  of  the  olden  time, 
had  not  its  truth  been  confirmed  by  modern  exca- 
vations. The  exploration  of  the  discovered  ruins, 
demonstrates  the  melancholy  catastrophe  and  former 
magnificence  of  the  buried  towns. 

Before  unbelief  finally  rejects  the  scriptural  ac- 
count of  the  original  perfection  and  subsequent 
apostasy  of  man,  let  her  profoundly  meditate  upon 
the  moral  ruins  of  our  race,  so  strangely  com- 
pounded of  the  celestial  and  the  grovelling.  How 
dissimilar  is  this  heterogeneous  and  contrarious 
mass  to  the  other  visible  vi^orks  of  the  great  Archi- 
tect !  Where,  in  its  discordant  elements,  is  to  be 
found  that  harmony  of  organization  which  consti- 
tutes the  unerring  mark  of  the  almighty  hand. 
The  grandeur  of  humanity  claims  kindred  with  the 
skies;  its  abject  vileness  can  scarcely  aspire  to 
brotherhood  with  the  brute.  The  lord  of  earth 
came  not  thus  from  the  hands  of  his  Creator.  As 
the  physical  ruins  of  the  Neapolitan  cities  demon- 
strate at  once  their  volcanic  overthrow  and  prime- 
val splendor,  so  do  the  moral  ruins  of  man  betoken 
alike  his  original  majesty  and  melancholy  fall. 

Another  phenomenon,  akin  to  that  already  dis- 


THE    MORAL    INCONGRUITIES    OF    MAN.  295 

cussed,  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  race  of  sinful 
mortals  have  not,  ere  this,  been  utterly  extermi- 
nated. The  continued  wickedness  of  man,  and  the 
long  pause  of  retributive  vengeance,  present  an 
enigma  not  to  be  explained  by  the  light  of  nature. 
That  almighty  justice  should  have  permitted  open 
and  high-handed  rebellion,  to  enjoy  for  thousands 
of  years  one  entire  and  beautiful  province  of  the 
general  empire,  is  a  dark  problem  which  reason 
cannot  solve  without  an  open  Bible  before  her. 
It  is  in  the  history  of  the  great  atonement  alone, 
studied  by  the  optics  of  the  Gospel,  that  she  can 
find  the  solution  of  the  otherwise  unfathomable 
mystery. 

Even  in  the  hours  of  their  first  moral  night,  the 
star  of  Bethlehem  shed  its  cheering  ray  on  the 
apostate  pair.  Salvation  has  ever  since  been  pur- 
suing its  majestic  march,  sometimes  with  silent, 
sometimes  with  resounding  steps,  towards  its  migh- 
ty consummation.  Sinners  have  been  spared  that 
the  cross  might  be  glorified ;  the  bolt  of  retribution 
has  been  delayed,  that  all  the  predicted  triumphs 
of  redeeming  love  might  be  achieved.  But  when 
the  wheat  of  Emmanuel's  harvest  shall  be  fully 
gathered  into  the  garners  of  blessedness,  the  tares 
sown  by  the  prince  of  darkness,  and  springing  up 


296  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

with  such  baneful  luxuriance  in  the  rank  soil  of  sin, 
shall  be  collected  together  and  burned  with  un- 
quenchable fire.  God's  mysterious  forbearance  in 
the  punishment  of  the  rebellious  world,  thus  affords 
another  instance  where,  to  explain  the  book  of  na- 
ture and  providence,  it  is  needful  to  invoke  the 
Book  of  Revelation. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE   PROMULGATION    OF   THE   GOSPEL. 

Early  and  rapid  spread  of  Gospel  proved  by  Gospel  itself,  and  by 
secular  and  ecclesiastical  histories — Formidable  impediments  to 
its  progress — was  exclusive  and  uncompromising — opposed  to 
prejudices  and  expectations  of  Jews — Country  of  its  origin  awak- 
ened prejudices  of  gentiles — Heathen  superstition  deeply  in- 
trenched in  minds  of  nations — Retainers  of  polytheism  roused 
themselves  to  oppose  invasion  of  Christianity — Recoihng  from 
open  argument,  they  employed  foulest  slanders — Polytheism 
closely  interwoven  with  civil  government — which  was  invoked 
and  came  to  her  rescue — Roman  empire  embraced  whole  civil- 
ized world — Sufferings  in  Nero's  gardens  specimens  of  other  suf- 
ferings— General  population  joined  in  persecuting  Christians — 
Intrinsic  impediments  Gospel  had  to  encounter — Opposed  to 
pride,  passions,  and  propensities  of  fallen  man — Gospel  made 
the  moral  reformation  of  its  votaries  a  test  of  its  truth — and  that 
in  an  age  of  universal  corruption — Human  instrumentality  em- 
ployed in  spread  of  Gospel  inadequate  to  exigency — its  promul- 
gators a  few  Jewish  peasants — the  most  despised  members  of  a 
despised  nation — Contrast  between  martial  conquests  and  the 
conquests  achieved  by  GospeL 

The  book  entitled  "  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles," 
was  not  composed  and  embodied  in  the  Sacred 
Canon  merely  to  gratify  historical  curiosity. 
Prompted  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  was  designed  to 
show  that  God,  by  miraculously  aiding  the  dissemi- 
nation of  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  recognized  it  as 
13* 


298  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

divine.  The  Gospel  is  its  own  witness  to  its  won- 
derful spread.  The  earliest  record  of  the  triumphs 
of  primitive  Christianity  is  found  in  the  Inspired 
Volume.  We  may,  therefore,  for  the  purposes  of 
our  argument,  classify  the  promulgation  of  the  Gos- 
pel among  its  internal  evidences,  without  any  rep- 
rehensible invasion  of  the  extraneous  department 
of  the  christian  proofs. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  "  The  Acts,"  the  historian 
states  that,  at  the  time  of  the  ascension,  the  num- 
ber of  the  disciples  assembled  was  about  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty.  In  the  second  chapter  he  affirms, 
that  at  the  season  of  pentecost,  which  was  only  ten 
days  afterwards,  three  thousand  converts  were 
simultaneously  added  to  the  infant  church.  In  the 
fourth  chapter  it  appears  that  the  number  of  be- 
lievers had  increased  to  "  about  five  thousand."  In 
the  fifth  chapter  it  is  stated,  "  And  believers  were 
the  more  added  to  the  Lord,  multitudes  both  of  men 
and  women."  The  sixth  chapter  superadds,  "  And 
the  word  of  God  increased,  and  the  number  of  the 
disciples  multiplied  in  Jerusalem  greatly ;  and  a 
great  company  of  the  priests  were  obedient  to  the 
faith."  After  the  twelfth  chapter,  the  evangelical 
historian  dwells  almost  exclusively  upon  the  pro- 
gress of  the  great  apostle  to  the  gentiles.     But  it  is 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     299 

not  to  be  hence  inferred,  that  the  other  apostles 
remained  inactive,  or  that  the  results  of  their  labors 
were  unworthy  to  be  recorded.  Even  the  limited 
details  contained  in  the  book  of  "  The  Acts,"  show 
that  during  the  twenty-eight  years  of  which  it 
briefly  treats,  the  religion  of  the  cross  had  pervaded 
Judea,  Samaria,  the  districts  of  Lesser  Asia,  Greece, 
the  islands  of  the  iEgean  Sea,  the  northern  coast 
of  Africa,  and  even  the  imperial  capital  of  all  the 
world. 

If  we  pass  from  the  Sacred  Pages  to  the  writings 
of  hostile  polytheists,  we  find  unequivocal  demon- 
strations of  the  rapid  advance  of  primitive  Christi- 
anity. The  celebrated  passage  from  Tacitus, 
copied  in  a  preceding  chapter,  bears  with  conclu- 
sive force  upon  this  branch  of  our  subject.  In 
narrating  the  circumstances  of  Nero's  conflagra- 
tion, which  happened  in  the  thirtieth  year  after  the 
ascension,  and  which  the  tyrant,  though  himself  the 
incendiary,  basely  imputed  to  the  christians,  the 
Roman  historian,  after  stating  that  they  had  de- 
rived their  origin  and  name  from  Christ,  who  in  the 
reign  of  Tiberius,  had  suff*ered  death  under  the  sen- 
tence of  the  procurator,  Pontius  Pilate,  thus  pro- 
ceeds; "For  a  while  this  dire  superstition  was 
checked;  but  it  again  burst  forth,   and  not  only 


300  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

spread  itself  over  Judea,  the  first  seat  of  the  mis- 
chievous sect,  but  v^as  even  introduced  into  Rome, 
the  common  asylum  w^hich  receives  and  protects 
whatever  is  impure,  whatever  is  atrocious.  The 
confessions  of  those  who  were  seized,  discovered  a 
vast  multitude  of  their  accomplices ;  and  they  were 
all  convicted,  not  so  much  for  the  crime  of  setting 
fire  to  the  city  as  for  their  hatred  to  human  kind.'* 

The  expression,  "  vast  multitude,"  in  this  pas- 
sage, when  used  by  an  author  so  scrupulously  op- 
posed to  exaggeration  as  Tacitus,  implies,  that  at 
the  time  of  the  conflagration,  the  number  of  chris- 
tians in  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  capital  had  be- 
come immense.  The  passage  contains  other  sig- 
nificant expressions,  reaching  still  nearer  to  the 
time  of  the  crucifixion.  "For  awhile  this  dire 
superstition  was  checked ;  but  it  again  burst  forth" 
and  overspread  Judea.  The  terms  "  burst  forth," 
from  the  pen  of  the  ever-guarded  Roman  annalist, 
indicate  something  more  than  a  slow  and  gradual 
diffusion  of  what  he  styles  the  "  dire  superstition." 
He  meant  to  signify  that  its  reappearance  and 
spread  were  sudden,  extraordinary,  prodigious. 
How  corroborative  of  the  scene  of  pentecost  and 
of  the  other  apostolic  triumphs  is  the  language  of 
the  heathen  Tacitus ! 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     301 

The  letter  of  Pliny,  and  the  reply  of  the  emperor, 
set  forth  at  large  in  one  of  our  previous  chapters, 
are  not  less  demonstrative  of  the  early  and  wonder- 
ful progress  of  the  Gospel.  Pliny's  letter  was  written, 
as  we  have  seen,  about  seventy  years  after  the 
ascension.  He  was  governor  of  Pontus  and  Bithyn- 
ia,  two  Asiatic  provinces,  remote  from  the  birth- 
place of  the  new  religion.  He  sought  imperial  in- 
structions to  regulate  his  treatment  of  the  christians, 
who  were  overspreading  the  countries  subject  to 
his  authority.  In  speaking  of  them  he  says, 
"  Others  named  by  an  informer  first  affirmed  and 
then  denied  the  charge  of  Christianity ;  declaring 
that  they  had  been  christians,  but  had  ceased  to  be 
so,  some  three  years  ago,  others  still  longer,  some 
even  twenty  years  ago."  Hence  it  appears  that 
the  evangelical  faith  had  then  been  of  more  than 
twenty  years'  standing,  in  the  provinces  of  which 
Pliny  was  procurator.  He  proceeds;  "For  the 
number  of  culprits  is  so  great  as  to  call  for  serious 
consultation.  Many  persons  are  informed  against 
of  every  age  and  of  both  sexes,  and  more  still  will 
be  in  the  same  situation.  The  contagion  of  the 
superstition  hath  spread,  not  only  through  cities, 
but  even  villages  and  the  country.  Not  that  I 
think  it  impossible  to  check  and  to  correct  it.     The 


302  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

success  of  my  endeavors  hitherto  forbids  such  de- 
sponding thoughts;  for  the  temples,  once  almost 
desolate,  begin  to  be  frequented,  and  the  sacred  so- 
lemnities, which  had  long  been  intermitted,  are 
now  attended  afresh;  and  the  sacrificial  victims 
are  now  sold  everywhere,  which  could  once  scarce 
find  a  purchaser/' 

These  extracts  show  that,  within  about  seventy 
years  after  the  ascension,  the  religion  of  the  Cruci- 
fied had  pervaded  the  sequestered  regions  of  Bi- 
thynia  and  Pontus ;  that  it  had  made  "  almost  deso- 
late" the  temples  of  the  false  gods ;  that  it  had 
caused  their  profane  solemnities  to  be  long  "  inter- 
mitted ;"  and  that  it  had  even  rendered  unsalable 
their  "sacrificial  victims."  The  Roman  scholar 
speaks  of  "the  contagion  of  the  superstition  ;"  thus 
selecting,  to  express  the  expansive  power  of  the 
Gospel,  some  of  the  most  potent  terms  known  to 
human  speech.  There  is  no  pretence  that  the 
streams  of  salvation  had  not  overflowed  the  other 
provinces  of  the  Roman  empire  at  least  as  early 
and  copiously  as  they  did  the  distant  countries 
where  the  sagacious  Pliny  had  been  commissioned 
to  check  the  inundation. 

The  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  first  three  cen- 
turies is  replete  with  proofs  of  the  Gospel's  aston- 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     303 

ishing  spread.  Its  triumphant  march  from  land  to 
land,  and  from  continent  to  continent,  forms  the 
glowing  theme  of  all  the  christian  fathers.  Take 
as  an  example  the  following  extract  from  Justin 
Martyr,  who  wrote  about  one  hundred  and  six 
years  after  the  ascension  :  "  There  is  not,"  says  he, 
"  a  nation,  either  Greek  or  barbarian,  or  of  any 
other  name,  even  of  those  who  wander  in  tribes  and 
live  in  tents,  among  whom  prayers  and  thanksgiv- 
ings are  not  offered  to  the  Father  and  Creator  of 
the  Universe,  by  the  name  of  the  crucified  Jesus." 
Take  as  another  example  the  following  extract 
from  Clement  of  Alexandria,  who  wrote  about 
fifty-five  years  after  Justin  Martyr.  He  says, 
"  The  philosophers  were  limited  to  Greece,  and 
their  particular  retainers ;  but  the  doctrine  of  the 
Master  of  Christianity  was  not  circumscribed  to 
Judea,  but  spread  throughout  the  whole  world,  in 
every  nation,  and  village,  and  city,  both  of  Greeks 
and  barbarians,  converting  separate  individuals 
and  whole  houses ;  having  already  brought  over  to 
the  truth  not  a  few  of  the  philosophers  themselves. 
If  the  Greek  philosophy  is  interdicted  by  law,  it 
immediately  disappears ;  whereas,  though  from  the 
first  appearance  of  Christianity,  kings  and  tyrants, 
governors  and  presidents,  with  their  whole  train, 


304      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

and  with  the  populace  on  their  side,  have  endeav- 
ored with  their  whole  force  to  exterminate  it,  yet 
doth  it  flourish  more  and  more."  None  will  deny 
that,  early  in  the  fourth  century,  the  once  despised 
and  persecuted  faith  of  the  cross  ascended  the 
throne  of  the  Caesars,  and  became  the  established 
religion  of  the  Roman  empire. 

Further  proofs  of  the  rapid  and  wide  diffusion  of 
Christianity,  long  ere  it  grasped  the  imperial  scep- 
tre, would  be  useless.  Its  astounding  spread  was 
the  wonder  of  the  world.  It  bears  on  its  face  the 
impress  of  the  Omnipotent.  But  the  assurance  of 
divine  agency  in  the  early  promulgation  of  the 
Gospel,  will  be  rendered  "  doubly  sure"  by  an  ex- 
amination of  the  formidable  impediments  it  had  to 
encounter,  and  the  feebleness  of  the  human  means 
employed  for  its  advancement. 

The  impediments  interposed  to  the  primitive 
spread  of  our  holy  religion,  would  have  appalled 
and  confounded  the  stoutest  heart,  unless  sustained 
by  that  heaven-born  faith  which,  like  its  sister  char- 
ity, "  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  endur- 
eth  all  things."  Christianity  was  exclusive  and 
uncompromising.  It  waged  a  war  not  merely  of 
conquest,  but  of  extermination  against  error  in  its 
diversified   modifications.      Hence  it  drew  down 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     305 

upon  its  head  the  united  vengeance  of  all  the 
priesthoods  of  earth.  The  Jewish  hierarchy  exer- 
cised over  the  national  mind  controlling  domina- 
tion. They  had  immemorially  taught  the  people 
to  expect  that  the  advent  of  the  Messiah  of  the  Old 
Testament  would  be  accompanied  by  worldly  pomp 
and  power ;  that  he  would  break  asunder  the  Ro- 
man yoke,  and  restore  his  country  to  the  glories  of 
the  age  of  Solomon.  Christianity  came  into  direct 
collision  with  these  long-cherished  expectations. 

Born  in  a  manger  and  wrapped  in  its  straw,  the 
Messiah  of  the  Gospel  spent  his  youth  and  early 
manhood  in  the  laborious  workshop  of  a  poor  me- 
chanic. At  the  commencement  of  his  pubhc  min- 
istrations, he  selected  for  his  companions  fishermen 
and  publicans ;  he  was  "  meek  and  lowly  in  heart ;" 
he  had  "  not  where  to  lay  his  head ;"  he  proclaimed 
that  his  "kingdom  was  not  of  this  world."  No 
wonder  that  he  was  rejected  of  his  countrymen. 
No  wonder  that  when  he  appeared  as  a  prophet  in 
the  place  of  his  youthful  domicil,  "  all  they  in  the 
synagogue"  "were  filled  with  wrath,  and  rose  up 
and  thrust  him  out  of  the  city,  and  led  him  unto  the 
brow  of  the  hill  whereon  their  city  was  built,  that 
they  might  cast  him  down  headlong."*     No  won- 

^  Luke  iv.  28.  29. 


306  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

der  that  the  multitudes  sometimes  took  up  stones  to 
stone  him,  and  sometimes  cried  out,  "  Crucify  him, 
Crucify  him." 

Yet  even  Tacitus  affirms,  that  the  rehgion  of 
Christ,  though  checked  for  a  time  by  his  death  as  a 
malefactor,  "  again  burst  forth,"  and  overspread 
Judea.  To  suppose  that  this  resistless  outbreak 
was  produced  by  the  followers  of  the  Crucified, 
without  almighty  aid,  would  violate  the  fixed  prin- 
ciples of  the  Jewish  character.  Nothing  is  more 
inflexible  than  Hebrew  prejudice.  If  any  one 
doubts  the  truth  of  this  position,  let  him  attempt  to 
christianize  an  Israelite  of  the  present  day  by  the 
force  of  reasoning.  The  granite  of  the  Jewish 
heart,  like  the  rock  of  Horeb,  would  have  been  pen- 
etrated only  by  a  rod  of  heavenly  temperament. 

As  it  entered  the  domains  of  polytheism  the  Gos- 
pel encountered  hindrances  no  less  formidable.  In 
gentile  estimation,  the  place  of  its  origin  tainted  it 
with  suspicion.  Greek,  Roman,  and  barbarian 
united  in  their  commo^  detestation  of  the  Hebrew 
race.  They  deemed  Palestine  the  birth-place  and 
the  home  of  superstitions,  alike  hostile  to  earth  and 
to  heaven.  Any  theological  creed  emanating  from 
£hat  despised  and  abhorred  land  must  have  sunk 
under  its  own  weight,  if  sustained  only  by  human 


THE    PROMULGATION    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  307 

instrumentality.  But  national  prejudice  was  not 
the  chief  obstacle  that  impeded  the  introduction  of 
Christianity  into  pagan  countries. 

It  is  a  fallacy  to  suppose  that  its  ancient  super, 
stition  sat  lightly  upon  the  heathen  world.  Though 
rejected  by  some  few  skeptical  philosophers,  it  had 
fastened  itself  upon  the  hearts  of  the  millions  as 
with  hooks  of  steel.  "  The  religion  of  the  nations," 
says  Gibbon,  "  was  not  merely  a  speculative  doc- 
trine, professed  in  the  schools  or  preached  in  the 
temples.  The  innumerable  deities  and  rites  of 
polytheism  were  closely  interwoven  with  every  cir- 
cumstance of  business  or  pleasure,  of  public  or  of 
private  life ;  and  it  seemed  impossible  to  escape  the 
observance  of  them,  without  at  the  same  time  re- 
nouncing the  commerce  of  mankind,  and  all  the 
offices  and  amusements  of  society."*  The  lares 
and  penates,  those  divinities  of  the  fire-side,  were 
endeared  to  the  soul  by  the  tenderest  associations. 
The  pagan  faith  was  associated  with  the  loved 
memory  of  the  dead,  supposed  to  be  in  the  fruition 
of  its  fabled  elysium.  Poetry,  painting  and  sculp- 
ture had  combined  to  deck  it  in  all  their  charms. 
It  went  with  its  votaries  to  their  haunts  of  amuse- 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  ii.  pp.  285,  286. 


308      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE.^ 

merit.  The  public  games,  shows,  processions,  and 
festivals  were  essential  parts  of  the  religion  of  the 
state,  designed  no  less  for  the  honor  of  the  gods 
than  for  the  entertainment  of  men.  The  priests 
of  idolatry  were  supported  by  the  rents  of  conse- 
crated lands,  and  by  liberal  contributions  from 
the  public  treasury  ;  they  were  gorgeously  clothed 
in  robes  of  purple,  rolled  in  magnificent  chariots, 
and  ravished  the  people  with  frequent  and  sump- 
tuous feasts.  Polytheism  was  the  patroness  of 
the  arts,  fine  and  mechanical.  She  munificently 
rewarded  the  painter  and  the  sculptor,  and  gave 
employment  and  bread  to  the  humbler  trades  that 
subserved  idolatrous  worship. 

The  satellites,  retainers,  and  dependants  of  the 
ancient  faith,  roused  all  their  energies  to  rescue 
their  nursing  mother  from  the  inroad  of  the  Gospel. 
Christianity  had  denounced  her  oracles,  sought  to 
prostrate  her  altars,  proclaimed  her  priests  to  be  im- 
postors and  her  gods  to  be  devils.  It  was  a  struggle 
for  life.  Polytheism  must  destroy  her  invading  foe 
or  be  herself  destroyed.  From  the  open  field  of 
honest  argument,  the  votaries  of  superstition  re- 
coiled; they  insidiously  resorted  to  the  grossest 
misrepresentations;  they  invoked  the  basest  slan- 
ders; they  contaminated  the  air  with  the  foulest 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     309 

calumnies;  they  endeavored  to  inflict  mortal 
wounds  by  arrows  dipped  in  the  deadliest  poison. 
Take  the  following  as  a  sample  of  the  atrocious 
libels  with  which  they  sought  to  overwhelm  the  in- 
fant church.  Of  its  holy  feast  of  the  eucharist,  "  It 
was  asserted  that  a  new-born  infant  entirely  cov- 
ered over  with  flour  was  presented,  like  some  mys- 
tic symbol  of  initiation,  to  the  knife  of  the  proselyte, 
who  unknowingly  inflicted  many  a  secret  and  mor- 
tal wound  on  the  innocent  victim  of  his  error ;  that 
as  soon  as  the  cruel  deed  was  perpetrated,  the  sec- 
taries drank  up  the  blood,  greedily  tore  asunder  the 
quivering  members,  and  pledged  themselves  to 
eternal  secresy  by  a  mutual  consciousness  of 
guilt."* 

Polytheism  was  closely  interwoven  with  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  state.  The  sacerdotal  offices  were 
sought  and  held  by  the  most  illustrious  citizens; 
the  blood  of  royalty  was  often  commingled  with  the 
blood  of  the  priesthood  Religion  had  pervaded  all 
the  concerns  of  life,  public  as  well  as  private.  War 
was  not  declared  or  peace  concluded  without  the 
sanction  of  augury  and  the  solemnities  of  sacrifice, 
in  which  the  magistrate,  the  senator,  and  the  soldier 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  ii.  p.  388. 

OT  TPIT 

"JITIVBRSTT^ 


310      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

were  obliged  to  participate.  The  oracles  of  super- 
stition were  believed  to  command  the  secrets  of 
fate.  Success  in  arms  was  celebrated  by  thanks- 
giving to  the  Olympian  divinities ;  national  calami- 
ties were  to  be  averted  by  fasting  and  humiliation. 
The  hierarchy  were  supposed  to  be  the  sole  medi- 
ators between  earth  and  heaven.  An  alliance  de- 
fensive and  offensive  had  immemorially  existed  be- 
tween idolatry  and  the  civil  government.  Pressed 
by  the  invasion  of  Christianity,  polytheism  implo- 
ringly invoked  the  sympathy  and  protecting  arm  of 
the  sovereign  power.  Nor  was  the  invocation  in 
vain. 

At  the  time  of  the  crucifixion,  and  for  ages  after- 
wards, the  Roman  empire  embraced  the  whole  civ- 
ilized world.  Its  despot  ruled  with  a  rod  of  iron, 
from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Western  Ocean,  and 
from  the  frozen  north  to  the  regions  of  the  equator. 
Stimulated  by  the  pagan  priesthood  the  imperial 
government  employed,  for  three  centuries,  its  co- 
lossal power  to  extinguish  forever  the  christian 
name.  Its  auxiliaries  were  the  dungeon,  the  cross, 
the  flames,  and  the  fury  of  wild  beasts.  To  its 
almost  omnipotent  might  it  superadded  a  sort  of 
terrestrial  omnipresence.  For  where,  save  "  in 
deserts,  and  in  mountains,  and  in  dens  and  caves  of 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     311 

the  earth/'*  could  the  hunted  saints  find  refuge  from 
its  destroying  wrath  ? 

If  the  tremendous  realities  of  the  persecutions  in- 
flicted on  the  faithful  by  pagan  Rome,  are  not 
vividly  impressed  on  the  recollection  of  the  reader, 
let  him  turn  once  more  to  the  passage  we  have 
transcribed  from  Tacitus.  That  heathen  author 
thus  describes  the  sufferings  of  the  christians  under 
Nero.  "  They  died  in  torments,  and  their  torments 
were  embittered  by  insult  and  derision.  Some 
were  nailed  on  crosses;  others  sewed  up  in  the 
skins  of  wild  beasts  and  exposed  to  the  fury  of  dogs ; 
others  again,  smeared  over  with  combustible  mate- 
rials, were  used  as  torches  to  illuminate  the  dark- 
ness of  the  night."  If  it  be  urged  that  Nero  was  a 
cruel  tyrant,  and  that  no  general  inference  can  be 
drawn  from  his  example,  we  turn  to  the  persecu- 
tions under  the  benevolent  Trajan,  and  his  classic 
governor.  In  his  letter  to  the  emperor,  hereinbe- 
fore set  forth,  Pliny  states,  that  he  had  uniformly  put 
to  death  all  christians  who  refused  to  renounce  their 
faith,  and  execrate  their  Redeemer,  and  that  to  ex- 
tort the  secrets  of  the  sect,  he  had  deemed  it  fitting 
"  to   inquire   by   torture  from  two  females,  who 

*  Hebrews  xi.  38. 


312  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

who  were  said  to  be  deaconesses" — doubtless  ven- 
erable for  their  age  as  well  as  for  their  piety.  And 
we  have  seen  that  his  imperial  master  commences 
his  reply  with  these  memorable  words,  "  You  have 
done  perfectly  right,  my  dear  Pliny." 

The  Roman  government,  and  the  immediate  re- 
tainers of  polytheism,  were  not  the  only  actors  in 
the  long  drama  of  persecution.  For  ages  the  gene- 
ral population  of  the  empire  adhered  to  the  ancient 
faith,  and  joined  the  powers  of  despotism  in  chas- 
ing down  as  animals  of  prey  the  unoffending  chris- 
tians. Sometimes,  when  the  civil  authorities  had 
paused  in  their  fierce  onset,  the  infuriated  mass- 
es, impatient  at  the  law's  delay,  took  into  their 
own  rude  hands  the  work  of  summary  vengeance. 
Affectation  of  historic  candor  has  extorted  the 
following  confession  even  from  the  pen  of  the  in- 
fidel Gibbon : — 

"  In  a  large  and  tumultuous  assembly,"  says  he,  "  the 
restraints  of  fear  and  shame,  so  forcible  on  the  minds  of  in- 
dividuals, are  deprived  of  the  greatest  part  of  their  influence. 
The  pious  christian,  as  he  was  desirous  to  obtain  or  to  es- 
cape the  gloiy  of  martyrdom,  expected  either  with  impa- 
tience or  with  terror  the  stated  returns  of  the  public  games 
and  festivals.  On  those  occasions  the  inhabitants  of  the 
great  cities  of  the  empire  were  collected  in  the  circus  of  the 
theatre,  where  every  circumstance  of  the  place,  as  well  as 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.    313 

of  tlie  ceremony,  contributed  to  kindle  their  devotion  and 
to  extinguish  their  humanity.  Whilst  the  numerous  spec- 
tators, crowned  with  garlands,  perfumed  with  incense,  puri- 
fied with  the  blood  of  victims,  and  surrounded  with  the 
altars  and  statues  of  their  tutelar  deities,  resigned  them- 
selves to  the  enjoyment  of  pleasures  wliich  they  considered 
as  an  essential  part  of  their  religious  worship,  they  recol- 
lected that  the  christians  alone  abhorred  the  gods  of  man- 
kind, and  by  their  absence  and  melancholy  on  these  solemn 
festivals,  seemed  to  insult  or  to  lament  the  public  felicity. 
If  the  empire  had  been  aflBiicted  by  any  recent  calamity,  by 
a  plague,  a  famine,  or  an  unsuccessful  war ;  if  the  Tiber 
had,  or  if  the  Nile  had  not  risen  beyond  its  banks ;  if  the 
earth  had  shaken,  or  if  the  temperate  order  of  the  seasons 
had  been  interrupted,  the  superstitious  pagans  were  con- 
vinced that  the  crimes  and  the  impiety  of  the  christians, 
who  were  spared  by  the  excessive  lenity  of  the  government, 
had  at  length  provoked  the  divine  justice.  It  was  not 
among  a  licentious  and  exasperated  populace  that  the  forms 
of  legal  proceedings  could  be  observed ;  it  was  not  in  an 
amphitheatre,  stained  with  the  blood  of  wild  beasts  and 
gladiators,  that  the  voice  of  compassion  could  be  heard 
The  impatient  clamors  of  the  multitude  denounced  the 
christians  as  the  enemies  of  gods  and  men,  doomed  them 
to  the  severest  tortures,  and  venturing  to  accuse  by  name 
some  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  new  sectaries,  re- 
quired with  irresistible  vehemence  that  they  should  be  in- 
stantly apprehended  and  cast  to  the  Hons."* 


*  Gibbon,  vol.  ii.  pages  412,  413. 
14 


314      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

But  the  Gospel  had  intrinsic  impediments  even 
more  formidable  than  those  presented  from  without. 
These  inherent  impediments  arose  from  its  immacu- 
late purity  and  holiness ;  its  humbling  doctrines  and 
precepts ;  its  lofty  and  uncompromising  exactions. 
It  was  opposed  to  the  pride  and  passions  of  fallen 
man ;  it  came  into  collision  with  all  the  aspirations 
of  the  carnal  heart.  It  beguiled  not  proselytes  by 
specious  promises ;  it  plainly  predicted  as  the  earthly 
portion  of  the  primitive  believers,  persecution,  im- 
prisonment, and  martyrdom.  These  were  the  lega- 
cies— the  only  sublunary  legacies — it  bequeathed 
to  its  faithful  followers. 

The  first  mandate  of  the  Gospel  was,  "  Repent.' 
The  injunction  implied  the  charge  of  natural  de- 
pravity. Nor  did  the  Gospel  leave  to  arrogant 
man  the  boast  that  he  could  repent  by  his  own  un- 
aided volition.  It  exposed  the  feebleness  as  well  as 
the  turpitude  of  our  fallen  nature.  At  the  head  of 
mortal  excellencies,  it  placed  the  lowly  virtue  of 
humility.  It  said  to  the  passionate  and  the  re- 
vengeful, "  Love  your  enemies ;"  "  Bless  them  that 
curse  you ;"  "  Whosoever  shall  smite  thee  on  thy 
right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also."  To  the 
aspirants  after  wealth,  it  proclaimed,  "  Lay  not  up 
for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth."      "If  thou 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     315 

wilt  be  perfect,  go  and  sell  what  thou  hast  and  give 
to  the  poor."  "  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through 
the  eye  of  a  needle,  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  God." 

To  the  votaries  of  ambition,  Christianity  declared, 
"  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit."  "  Whosoever  shall 
exalt  himself  shall  be  abased,  and  he  that  shall  hum- 
ble himself  shall  be  exalted."  Its  Founder  an- 
nounced to  the  lovers  of  pleasure,  "  If  any  man  will 
come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself  and  take  up 
his  cross  daily  and  follow  me."  Upon  the  humble 
ranks,  so  apt  to  repine  at  their  allotted  station,  it 
imposed  its  command,  "  Servants,  be  subject  to  your 
masters  with  all  fear,  not  only  to  the  good  and  gen- 
tle, but  also  to  the  froward."  It  curbed  the  factious 
and  turbulent  masses  by  its  injunction;  "Submit 
yourselves  to  every  ordinance  of  man  for  the  Lord's 
sake,  whether  it  be  to  the  king  as  supreme,  or  unto 
governors,  as  unto  them  that  are  sent  by  him  for  the 
punishment  of  evil-doers,  and  for  the  praise  of  them 
that  do  well." 

"  The  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God."  It 
is  no  less  hostile  to  his  Holy  Word.  The  Gospel 
came  into  direct  conflict  with  the  natural  heart  of 
our  whole  fallen  race,  whether  high  or  low,  rich  or 
poor,  bond  or  free,  rulers  or  ruled,  learned  or  un- 


316      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

learned.  If  it  had  not  been  accompanied  by  mirac- 
ulous demonstrations  of  a  present  God,  the  world 
would  unanimously  have  deemed  it,  what  it  was 
deemed  by  the  philosophic,  the  profound,  the  else 
candid  Tacitus,  a  "  dire  superstition ;"  and  its  abet- 
tors would,  by  universal  acclamation,  have  been 
branded  with  what  he  termed  "  deserved  infamy," 
"for  their  hatred  of  human  kind."  The  scribes 
and  Pharisees  gnashed  on  the  Gospel  with  their 
teeth.  The  scribes  and  pharisees  were  but  sam- 
ples of  apostate  humanity.  The  intellect  of  the 
natural  man  may  be  forced  to  admit  the  lustre  of 
evangelical  light,  but  he  can  no  more  love  that 
light  than  the  diseased  eye  can  dwell  with  compla- 
cency on  the  effulgence  of  the  noonday  sun.  Had 
it  not  been  divine,  the  Gospel  could  no  more  have 
turned  heavenward  the  grovelling  affections  of  the 
nations,  than  the  descending  stream  can  climb 
again  the  mountain  height.  The  onward,  upward 
progress  of  the  despised  and  persecuted  faith,  vio- 
lated the  fixed  laws  of  human  nature  as  really  as 
the  reascension  of  the  ocean-bound  flood  would 
violate  the  fixed  laws  of  the  physical  universe. 

The  promulgation  of  Christianity,  miraculous  in 
itself,  was  attended  with  the  auxiliary  miracle  of  a 
stupendous  change  in  the  lives  of  the  primitive 


THE    PROMULGATION    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  317 

christians.  It  was  affirmed  by  the  Gospel,  that  its 
divine  efficacy  would  transform  its  converts  from 
habits  of  sinful  indulgence  to  the  practice  of  holi- 
ness. Upon  the  verity  of  this  affirmation  it  rested 
its  own  truthfulness.  It  made  the  practical  and 
thorough  reformation  of  its  proselytes  a  test,  open 
and  palpable,  of  its  claim  to  divinity.  It  professed 
that  reform  of  the  outer  man  was  its  visible  seal 
stamped  on  all  its  faithful  followers.  If  for  a  suc- 
cession of  years,  no  impress  of  this  seal  had  been 
discernible  by  the  world,  the  Gospel  must  have 
sunk  under  the  weight  of  its  own  falsified  preten- 
sions. "  See  how  these  christians  live !"  would 
have  been  the  taunting  exclamation  of  unbelief, 
more  fatal  to  the  progress  of  evangelical  truth  than 
the  crosses,  the  flames,  and  the  lions  of  its  per- 
secutors. 

An  imposture  would  never  have  encountered  the 
test  to  which  the  Gospel  voluntarily  submitted  it- 
self. Next  to  changing  the  heart,  the  most  ardu- 
ous effort  is  to  change  the  life.  Some  writer  says 
that  "  man  is  a  bundle  of  habits."  The  saying  is 
true.  Habits  become  a  second  nature,  often  more 
inflexible  than  the  first.  The  difficulty  of  the  tran- 
sition from  vice  to  virtue,  is  expressed  in  Scripture 
with  a  power  of  language  peculiar  to  the  Sacred 


318      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

Oracles.  "  Can  the  Ethiopian  change  his  skin,  or 
the  leopard  his  spots  ?  then  may  ye  also  do  good 
that  are  accustomed  to  do  evil."*  Yet  did  the 
Gospel  achieve  a  revolution  in  the  morals  of  hu- 
man kind  sudden,  radical,  extensive,  enduring. 
Moral  reform  closely  followed  the  footsteps  of 
Christianity  whithersoever  it  went  in  its  conquer- 
ing career  from  clime  to  clime. 

The  time  and  circumstances  of  the  moral  revo- 
lution, wrought  by  early  Christianity,  were  pecu- 
liarly adverse  to  its  success.  Judea  was  then 
divided  between  the  self-worshipping  pharisees, 
who  thanked  God  that  they  were  not  as  other  men, 
and  the  dissolute  sadducees  whose  language  prac- 
tically was,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow 
we  die."  These  two  sects  controlled  the  whole 
population  of  the  country.  How  hostile  to  the 
pride  of  the  one,  and  to  the  libertinism  of  the  other, 
must  have  seemed  the  self-denying  precepts  and 
virtues  inculcated  by  the  Son  of  the  carpenter  and 
his  plebeian  followers ! 

As  it  entered  the  territories  of  paganism,  even 
Christianity  might  have  been  appalled  at  the  depth 
and  universality  of  triumphant  wickedness.     There 

*  Jeremiah  xiii,  23. 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     319 

were  giants  of  iniquity  in  those  days.  The  wealth 
of  conquered  kingdoms,  flowing  for  centuries  into 
the  Roman  capital,  had  made  it  a  vast  reservoir  of 
corruption.  Its  gladiatorial  spectacles,  where  cap- 
tives were  forced  to  engage  in  mortal  combat,  per- 
haps brother  with  brother,  for  the  amusement  of 
assembled  multitudes,  had  contaminated  the  tastes 
and  hardened  the  hearts  of  the  entire  community. 
There  lived  Apicius  and  his  luxurious  followers, 
some  of  whom,  in  the  midst  of  starving  thousands, 
had  not  been  ashamed  to  pay  one  hundred  pounds 
sterling  for  a  single  fish,  and  to  expend  fifty  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling  in  one  entertainment.  There 
reigned  Messalina,  the  royal  wanton,  whose  foul 
example  of  cruelty  and  lust  polluted  the  general 
atmosphere.  From  this  sea  of  licentiousness  di- 
verged into  each  imperial  province,  copious  and 
overflowing  streams  of  spiritual  poison.  The  Ro- 
man empire,  comprising  all  the  civilized  regions  of 
the  earth,  had,  in  the  reigns  of  Tiberius,  Caligula, 
Claudius,  and  Nero,  become,  though  eminently  in- 
tellectual, one  vast  Sodom  of  iniquity,  without  a 
solitary  Lot,  save  the  off*spring  of  Christianity,  to 
disturb  the  monotony  of  evil. 

It  was  in  this  age  of  seemingly  hopeless  deprav- 
ity, that  the  poor,  illiterate,  and  despised  pilgrims 


320  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

of  the  cross,  assumed  and  accomplished  the  mighty- 
task  of  reforming  the  morals  of  the  world.  The 
scoffing  nations  regarded  them  as  idiots  or  mad- 
men. Upon  any  natural  principle  the  growth  of 
the  christian  graces  in  a  soil  so  saturated  with  vice, 
was  a  physical  impossibility.  Yet  upon  that  very 
soil  did  the  christian  graces  spring  up  and  spread 
and  flourish.  The  conclusion  is  inevitable,  that 
they  were  planted  and  watered  by  the  hand  of  God. 
The  practical  holiness  of  the  primitive  christians 
stood  prominent  among  the  supernatural  prodigies 
authenticating  the  Gospel.  It  was  a  miracle,  per- 
haps more  affecting  to  the  heart  than  the  healing 
of  the  sick  or  the  stilling  of  the  tempest. 

If  we  contemplate  the  human  instrumentality 
employed  in  the  spread  of  Christianity,  the  demon- 
stration of  divine  interposition  will  become  still 
more  palpable.  The  most  wonderful  feature  in  the 
history  of  the  primitive  church  is,  the  inadequacy 
of  its  terrestrial  means  to  the  achievement  of  its 
mighty  conquests.  The  avowed  object  of  the  Gos- 
pel, from  the  first,  was  the  moral  renovation  of  the 
whole  human  family;  its  "good  tidings  of  great 
joy"  were  "  to  all  people  ;"  the  parting  mandate  of 
its  Founder  enjoined  that  it  should  be  preached  "  to 
every  creature ;"  it  grasped  not  Judea  alone,  but 


THE    PROMULGATION    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  321 

the  "thick  rotundity  of  the  world."  Its  mortal 
agents  for  the  accompHshment  of  its  stupendous 
purpose,  were  a  little  band  of  Jewish  peasants ;  of  a 
despised  nation  the  most  despised  members ;  "  made 
as  the  filth  of  the  earth,"  "  the  ofTscouring  of  all 
things;"*  without  money,  without  learning,  with- 
out friends,  without  arms  ;  scarcely  understanding 
the  rudiments  of  their  mother  tongue,  yet  familiarly 
addressing  every  people  in  its  own  strange  lan- 
guage. 

The  votaries  of  ambition  have  often  sought  the 
conquest  of  the  world.  But  their  march  in  quest 
of  universal  domination  had  in  its  train 

"  The  neighing  steed  and  the  shrill  trump, 
The  spirit-stirring  drum,  the  ear-piercing  fife, 
The  royal  banner,  and  all  quality. 
Pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  glorious  •war." 

Contrast  the  martial  array  of  Alexander  or  of 
Napoleon  with  the  peaceful  and  humble  band  that 
followed  the  carpenter's  Son.  Yet  had  the  "  meek 
and  lowly"  Nazarene  impediments  to  surmount  in- 
comparably greater  than  those  opposed  to  the 
Macedonian  or  to  the  Corsican.  Slight  was  the 
effeminate  resistance  of  oriental  slaves,  compared 

*  1  Corinthians  iv.  13. 


322  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

with  the  fierce  hostility  of  imperial  Rome.  Spring 
would  dissolve  the  Russian  frost;  it  required  the 
blood  of  God  to  thaw  into  repentance  the  else  in- 
terminable winter  of  the  carnal  heart.  The  empire 
of  Philip's  son  survived  not  its  founder  ;  his  modern 
imitator  lived  himself  to  behold  the  bursting  of  the 
colossal  bubble  for  which  he  had  madly  sacrificed 
the  lives  perhaps  of  millions.  The  dominion  of  the 
Prince  of  peace — wide  as  the  world — has  already 
survived,  even  before  attaining  its  glorious  matu- 
rity, the  lapse  of  eighteen  hundred  years.  From 
its  lofty  eminence  it  has  serenely  viewed  the 
changes  of  dynasties,  itself  unchanged ;  the  muta- 
tions of  time,  itself  immutable. 

Viewed  as  a  device  of  earth,  the  original  evan- 
gelical enterprise  was  a  compound  of  idiocy  and 
madness.  Viewed  as  a  divine  dispensation,  it  is  in 
strict  accordance  with  other  gracious  displays  of 
infinite  wisdom.  The  Almighty  has  been  wont  to 
a^jcomplish  his  stupendous  purposes  by  means  seem- 
ingly disproportioned  to  their  ends.  It  is  not  al- 
ways in  the  strong  wind,  or  the  earthquake,  or  the 
fire,  but  oftener,  perhaps,  in  the  "  still  small  voice," 
that  the  Omnipotent  is  heard.  It  need  not  excite 
our  special  wonder,  that  the  Word  made  flesh 
should  have  poured  "  contempt  upon  princes,"  by 


THE    PROMULGATION    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  323 

selecting  as  the  honored  instruments  for  dissemi- 
nating his  great  salvation,  the  poor,  the  illiterate, 
the  despised.  "I  thank  thee,  O  Father,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  because  thou 
hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent, 
and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes.  Even  so, 
Father,  for  so  it  seemed  good  in  thy  sight."* 

*  Matthew  si  25,  26. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  SAME  SUBJECT   CONTINUED. 

Character  of  Gibbon  as  an  historian — Would  have  discovered  any 
defect  in  foundations  of  Christianity — Bound  to  give  some  cause 
of  prodigious  spread  of  Gospel — Denying  divine  agency,  he 
assigned  five  causes  merely  human — His  five  causes  stated 
— First  cause — Zeal  of  primitive  christians — "Was  met  by  coun- 
ter zeal  of  Jews  and  heathens — Second  cause — Doctrine  of 
future  life — Hell  revealed  by  Gospel  appaUing  and  repulsive — 
Even  its  heaven  not  suited  to  tastes  of  depraved  heart — Third 
cause — Miraculous  powers  ascribed  to  primitive  church — Arroga- 
tion  of  such  powers  without  their  possession,  a  fraud  easily  de- 
tected— Fourth  cause — Pure  morals  of  early  christians — Their 
pm-e  morals  proof  of  efficacy  and  truth  of  Gospel — Gibbon's  at- 
tempt to  explain  their  pure  morals — Fifth  cause — Union  and  dis- 
cipline of  christian  republic — No  federative  union  of  churches 
until  close  of  second  century — And  before  then  Gospel  had 
achieved  signal  triumphs — No  event  in  history  parallel  to  prim- 
itive spread  of  Christianity — Imposture  of  Mohammed — Mod- 
ern missions. 

Had  his  candor  equalled  his  capacity,  Edward 
Gibbon  would  have  stood  almost  at  the  head  of  un- 
inspired historians.  His  imagination  was  powerful, 
his  intellect  comprehensive,  his  memory  retentive, 
his  industry  untiring.  His  "  History  of  the  Decline 
and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,"  occupied  twenty 
years  of  the  meridian  of  his  life.     It  is,  perhaps,  the 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     325 

most  erudite  of  historical  compositions.  Its  author 
was  master  aUke  of  the  treasures  of  secular  and  of 
ecclesiastical  learning.  His  great  work  reached 
back  to  the  birth  of  our  Saviour,  and  downward 
almost  to  the  era  of  the  Reformation.  Christianity 
met  him  at  every  stage  of  his  progress  along  the 
track  of  time.  No  writer,  lay  or  clerical,  ever  pos- 
sessed a  more  thorough  knowledge  than  he  did  of 
all  the  circumstances  attending  the  rise  and  spread 
of  our  holy  religion.  He  was  moved  to  a  search- 
ing exploration  of  its  primitive  annals  by  a  motive 
not  common  to  literary  men.  Though  wearing  the 
mask  of  friendship  to  the  Gospel,  he  hated  it  with 
the  most  perfect  hatred.  He  could  "smile  and 
murder  while"  he  smiled.  How  little  did  it  become 
the  dignity  of  the  historian  and  the  philosopher,  to 
substitute  for  the  sword  of  the  honorable  combatant 
the  stiletto  of  the  muffled  assassin ! 

Had  there  been  any  defect  in  the  foundations  of 
the  christian  superstructure  ;  had  not  Jesus  Christ 
been  a  real  personage,  crucified  at  Jerusalem  in  the 
reign  of  Tiberius  by  the  sentence  of  Pontius  Pilate ; 
had  not  the  books  composing  the  New  Testament 
been  actually  published  at  the  time  they  purport  to 
have  been  published — the  inquisitive  and  vindictive 
infidel  would  have  detected  and  exposed  the  impos- 


326  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

ture  to  the  contempt  and  execration  of  mankind. 
If  anything  impugning  the  scriptural  narratives 
could  have  been  gleaned  from  cotemporaneous  his- 
tory, or  from  any  Jewish  or  heathen  writings  what- 
soever, his  never-sleeping  rancor  would  have  dis- 
covered and  proclaimed  it  to  the  four  winds  of 
heaven. 

Gibbon  assumed  to  be  the  historian  of  advancing 
Christianity  as  well  as  of  the  declining  empire. 
The  wonderful  phenomenon  of  the  Gospel's  spread 
was  the  great  event  of  the  epoch  of  which  he  wrote. 
As  an  historian  and  philosopher,  he  could  not 
shrink  from  the  attempt  to  explain  its  cause  or 
causes.  An  effect  without  a  cause  would  be  an 
anomaly  in  nature.  The  Gospel  affirmed  that  its 
rapid  diffiision  was  wrought  by  the  direct  agency 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Denying  supernatural  in- 
fluence, the  daring  skeptic  assigned  for  the  stupen- 
dous effect,  which  for  centuHes  had  filled  the  world 
with  amazement,  five  causes  merely  human.  He 
took  issue  with  the  great  Author  of  the  Bible.  For 
the  conflict  he  invoked  all  the  energies  of  his  proud 
intellect,  and  all  the  resources  of  his  unsurpassed 
erudition.  The  natural  causes  which  he  assigned 
were,  doubtless,  the  most  specious  that  malign  in- 
genuity could  invent.     To  his  assignment  infidelity 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     327 

has  never  attempted  any  amendment ;  she  claims 
no  subterfuges  in  reserve;  her  renowned  cham- 
pion has  put  forth  all  her  strength  ;  upon  his  issue 
she  must  stand  or  fall.  If  his  five  causes  are  all 
found  utterly  wanting  when  weighed  in  the  bal- 
ance, the  world  must  look  to  the  cause  assigned  by 
the  Gospel's  God.  For  if  the  promulgation  of  the 
Gospel  could  not  have  been  wrought  by  human 
means,  it  must  have  been  achieved  by  divine. 

The  following  are  the  five  causes  of  the  Gospel's 
early  and  rapid  spread  assigned  by  the  historian  of 
declining  Rome.  They  are  given  in  his  own 
words : 

"  I.  The  inflexibile,  and,  if  we  may  use  the  expression, 
the  intolerant  zeal  of  the  chiistians,  derived,  it  is  true,  from 
the  Jewish  religion,  but  purified  from  the  narrow  and  un- 
social spirit,  which,  instead  of  inviting,  had  deterred  the 
gentiles  from  embracing  the  law  of  Moses.  II.  The  doc- 
trine of  a  future  life,  improved  by  every  additional  circum- 
stance which  could  give  weight  and  efficacy  to  that  impor- 
tant truth.  III.  The  miraculous  powers  ascribed  to  the 
primitive  church.  IV.  The  pure  and  austere  morals  of  the 
christians.  V.  The  union  and  discipline  of  the  christian 
republic,  which  gi'adually  formed  an  independent  and  in- 
creasing state  in  the  heart  of  the  Roman  empire."  * 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  ii.  p.  264. 


328  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

To  the  causes  of  Christianity's  early  progress  the 
historian  has  devoted  two  labored  chapters,  amount- 
ing together  to  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  octavo 
pages.  His  five  causes  we  shall  examine  in  their 
order. 

First. — The  first  of  the  causes  assigned  for  the 
Gospel's  spread,  is  the  inflexible  zeal  of  the  primi- 
tive christians.  But  had  they  no  countervailing 
zeal  to  combat  ?  In  speaking  of  Jewish  intolerance, 
Gibbon  himself  says,  "  The  current  of  zeal  and  de- 
votion, as  it  was  contracted  into  a  narrow  channel, 
ran  with  the  strength,  and  sometimes  with  the  fury 
of  a  torrent."*  And  this  rushing  flood  was  con- 
centrated upon  the  Founder  of  Christianity  and  his 
primeval  followers.  Scarcely  less  fierce  was  the 
ardor  of  the  polytheists  in  sustaining  their  ancient 
superstition  against  the  innovating  and  exclusive 
faith  of  the  cross.  Had  the  devotion  of  the  chris- 
tians consisted  in  impetuous  zeal  alone,  its  force 
would  have  been  met  and  neutralized  by  the  oppo- 
sing fury  of  the  Jews  and  gentiles.  Zeal,  to  effect 
general  and  permanent  conviction,  requires  sus- 
taining proofs   of  the  system  it  espouses;  else  it 

*  Gibbon,  voL  ii  p.  266. 


THE    PROMULGATION    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  329 

quickly  degenerates  into  insane  and  powerless  fanat- 
icism. Religious  phrenzy  may  pervade  a  single 
neighborhood;  but  how  could  it  subdue  opposing 
continents  ?  It  may  endure  for  a  brief  generation ; 
but  how  could  it  survive  the  flight  of  successive 
centuries  ? 

Secondly. — The  second  of  the  infidel  causes 
assigned  for  the  early  diffusion  of  Christianity  is  its 
more  complete  development  of  a  future  state.  It  is 
true  that  the  Founder  of  our  religion  "brought  life 
and  immortaUty  to  light  through  the  Gospel."  But 
if  the  Gospel  revealed  its  heaven,  it  revealed,  also, 
its  hell.  The  evangelical  representations  of  human 
depravity,  and  its  fearful  retributions  beyond  the 
grave,  were  calculated  to  repulse  rather  than  to 
conciliate  the  carnal  heart.  Tacitus  and  Pliny  did 
but  body  forth  the  spontaneous  whisperings  of  cor- 
rupt humanity,  when  the  former  styled  Christianity 
a  "dire  superstition,"  and  the  latter  spoke  of  its 
"  contagion"  as  he  would  have  spoken  of  pestilential 
poison. 

Nor  had  even  the  christian  heaven  allurements 
for  the  carnal  spirit.  The  heart  must  be  changed 
before  it  can  dwell  with  complacency  on  the  pure 
raptures  of  the  immediate  mansion   of  the   Most 


330  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

High.  An  immortality  of  holiness  might  rather 
have  repelled  than  attracted  the  polytheist.  Hea- 
then voluptuousness  v^ould  have  inclined  to  its  own 
elysium,  rather  than  to  the  everlasting  companion- 
ship of  the  cherubim  and  seraphim.  Had  the  angels 
conveyed  to  Abraham's  bosom  Dives  instead  of 
Lazarus,  the  spurner  of  the  pious  beggar  might  have 
found  the  consuming  presence  of  a  holy  God  not 
less  intolerable  than  the  torments  which  extorted 
from  him  the  piercing  cry  for  a  drop  of  water  to 
cool  his  burning  tongue.  The  wily  Arabian  impos- 
tor, when  he  devised  his  sensual  paradise,  under- 
stood the  tastes  of  the  natural  heart  better  than  did 
the  profound  historian  of  the  "  Decline  and  Fall  of 
the  Roman  Empire." 

Thirdly. — "  The  miraculous  powers  ascribed  to 
the  primitive  church,"  is  the  third  cause  assigned 
by  Gibbon,  for  the  diffusion  of  Christianity.  When 
the  unbeliever  spoke  of  the  ascription  of  supernat- 
ural powers  to  the  church,  he  did  not  mean  to  inti- 
mate that  the  church  actually  possessed  them.  On 
the  contrary,  he  ever  sought  with  untiring  assiduity 
the  impeachment  of  the  christian  miracles;  less, 
indeed,  by  open  denial  than  by  disingenuous  inu- 
endo.     It  was  the  false  arrogation  of  miraculous 


THE    PROMULGATION    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  331 

powers  by  the  infant  church,  that  he  meant  to  in- 
sinuate as  the  third  cause  of  the  Gospel's  early  pro- 
mulgation. He  indirectly  intimated,  what  he 
scarcely  ventured  to  affirm  directly,  that  the  early 
heralds  of  the  cross  fraudulently  beguiled  their 
proselytes  by  the  instrumentality  of  counterfeited 
signs  and  wonders. 

We  have,  in  preceding  chapters,  endeavored  to 
show  that  the  nature,  circumstances,  diffusion,  and 
long  continuance  of  the  christian  miracles  precluded 
the  possibility  of  their  being  deceptive ;  that  the  im- 
mediate attendants  upon  our  Lord  must  necessarily 
have  ascertained  from  the  evidence  of  their  own 
senses  whether  he  healed  the  sick,  raised  the  dead, 
and  cast  out  devils  by  his  simple  mandate ;  that  the 
Gospel  claimed  to  be  accompanied,  long  after  the 
decease  of  its  Founder,  with  signs  and  wonders,  as 
its  authenticating  and  sure  credentials;  that  it 
made  their  genuineness  the  test  of  its  own  truth ; 
that  the  dispersed  nations,  to  whom  it  appealed,  and 
whose  fealty  it  challenged,  would  have  examined  its 
credentials  with  the  most  inquisitorial  scrutiny  be- 
fore yielding  allegiance  to  a  new,  contemned,  and 
persecuted  faith,  which  promised  nothing  on  earth 
to  its  followers  but  privations,  sufferings,  and  deaths 
of  torture ;  that  the  enemies  of  Christianity  stood 


332  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

vigilant  sentinels  over  its  alleged  prodigies,  ever 
ready  and  eager  to  expose  to  universal  execration 
the  least  semblance  of  imposture ;  and  that  those 
very  enemies,  instead  of  denying  the  fact  of  the 
christian  marvels,  admitted  their  existence  and  pre- 
ternatural character  by  ascribing  them  to  demoniac 
or  magical  agency.  These  topics  we  need  not 
again  commend  to  the  profound  consideration  of 
the  inquirer  after  truth. 

The  demonstration  that  the  evangelical  signs 
and  wonders  were  not  simulated,  but  real,  will  be- 
come more  resistless  if  we  consider  the  age  and 
countries  in  which  they  were  originally  displayed 
to  the  senses  of  mankind.  It  was  the  Augustan 
age — memorable,  as  we  have  seen,  for  its  licen- 
tiousness, yet  doubtless  the  most  intellectual,  the 
most  erudite,  the  most  investigating,  the  most  skep- 
tical epoch  of  all  antiquity.  The  infant  Gospel 
confined  not  itself  to  the  skirts  of  civilization.  The 
chief  cities  of  Western  Asia,  with  Jerusalem  and 
Antioch  at  their  head,  were  scenes  of  its  triumphs. 
It  waved  its  banner  over  classic  Greece.  At  the 
Athenian  Areopagus,  it  confronted  the  Epicureans 
and  the  Stoics  in  the  very  citadel  of  their  strength. 
It  appeared  before  deputies,  governors,  and  kings. 
It  touched  the  heart  of  Sergius  Paulus,  made  Felix 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     333 

tremble,  and  almost  persuaded  Agrippa  to  be  a 
christian.  It  appealed  to  Caesar,  and  boldly  chal- 
lenged the  scrutiny  of  the  proud  capital  of  all  the 
earth. 

Should  a  band  of  obscure  adventurers  in  modern 
times,  conspire  to  revolutionize  the  spiritual  world 
by  substituting  for  the  existing  theology  of  Chris- 
tendom a  new  and  hostile  faith,  which  denounced 
the  Jehovah  of  the  Bible  as  an  imaginary  being, 
and  his  temples  as  the  receptacles  of  unmeaning 
idolatry ;  and  should  they,  in  furtherance  of  their 
impious  enterprise,  claim  to  be  endowed  with  the 
gift  of  unknown  tongues,  and  the  power  of  working 
miracles  akin  to  those  wrought  by  Jesus  Christ  and 
his  early  apostles — what  kingdoms,  what  states, 
what  provinces,  what  cities,  what  villages  could 
they  beguile  by  their  insane  imposture  ?  It  might 
possibly,  for  some  brief  space,  and  in  some  obscure 
corner,  decoy  by  the  tricks  of  jugglery  a  few  of 
the  illiterate  and  the  credulous.  But  how  could  it 
induce  the  enlightened  and  the  wise  of  different 
countries  to  believe  that,  in  their  presence  and  in 
the  light  of  day,  it  had  by  its  word,  cured  all  man- 
ner of  diseases,  raised  the  dead  to  life,  calmed  the 
turbulent  winds,  and  smoothed  the  waves  of  the 
angry  flood  ?     How  could  such  an  imposture  tri- 


334      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

umphantly  sustain  the  searching  inquisition  of  time  ? 
How  could  it  so  far  confound  the  gainsaying  as  to 
compel  them  to  yield  credence  to  the  fact  of  its 
mighty  works,  and  seek  for  them  a  cause  in  the 
agency  of  the  powers  of  darkness  ? 

And  yet  infidelity,  in  denying  the  inspiration  of 
the  Gospel,  has  no  alternative  but  to  hold  that,  in 
the  most  polished  age  of  classic  antiquity,  an  im- 
posture no  less  startHng  than  the  one  just  supposed, 
was,  by  the  instrumentality  of  fishermen,  publicans, 
and  tent-makers,  spread  through  enlightened  conti- 
nents, and  finally  seated  on  the  throne  of  the  civil- 
ized world,  in  opposition  to  the  corrupt  passions  of 
the  carnal  heart,  the  fierce  prejudices  of  ancient 
superstitions,  and  the  dungeon,  the  wheel,  the  stake, 
the  cross,  and  the  wild  beasts  of  despotic  power. 
Great  must  be  the  faith  of  the  infidel !  He  believes 
what  none  but  he  would  have  the  hardihood  to  be- 
lieve. His  alone  is  the  morbid  credulity  that  he 
would  slanderously  impute  to  the  primitive  chris- 
tians. Infidelity  requires  for  its  aliment  a  faith 
competent  to  "remove"  "and  cast  into  the  sea," 
mountains  of  improbability  piled  on  mountains. 

Fourthly. — "  The  pure  and  austere  morals  of  the 
christians,"  is  the  fourth  cause  named  by  the  un- 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     335 

believing  historian  for  the  early  and  wide  diffusion 
of  Christianity.  That  the  primitive  converts  were 
distinguished  by  unexampled  purity  of  life,  was  af- 
firmed by  every  christian  writer  of  antiquity,  and 
disputed  by  no  cotemporaneous  author,  Jewish  or 
heathen.  Thus  established  by  universal  and  con- 
stant asseveration  on  the  one  part,  and  by  the  total 
absence  of  denial  on  the  other,  the  spotless  virtue 
of  christian  professors  in  the  first  age  of  the  church 
has  become  an  historic  truism,  to  which  even  skep- 
ticism is  forced  to  yield  unwilling  credence.  Had 
the  learned  industry  of  Gibbon  been  able  to  cast 
over  the  fact  the  twilight  of  peradventure,  he  would 
not  have  assigned  it  as  one  of  the  five  causes  of  the 
mightiest  revolution  the  world  has  ever  beheld. 

But  the  sneering  infidel  seems  to  have  regarded 
the  purity  of  the  infant  church  with  little  more 
complacency  than  did  the  father  of  evil  the  inno- 
cency  of  Eden.  Compelled  to  admit  the  great  out- 
ward change  in  the  lives  of  the  primitive  faithful, 
he  directed  his  wily  efforts  to  neutralize  the  just  in- 
ference resulting  from  that  change.  He  insidiously 
adopts,  though  he  affects  to  reprobate,  what  he 
terms  the  "  very  ancient  reproach,"  "  that  the  chris- 
tians allured  into  their  party  the  most  atrocious 
criminals,  who,  as  soon  as  they  were  touched  by  a 


336      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

sense  of  remorse,  were  easily  persuaded  to  wash 
away  in  the  water  of  baptism  the  guilt  of  their  past 
conduct,  for  which  the  temples  of  the  gods  refused 
to  grant  them  any  expiation."*  And  in  the  next 
page  he  adds ;  "  After  the  example  of  their  divine 
master,  the  missionaries  of  the  gospel  disdained 
not  the  society  of  men,  and  especially  of  women, 
oppressed  by  the  consciousness,  and  very  often  by 
the  effects  of  their  vices.  As  they  emerged  from 
cin  and  superstition  to  the  glorious  hope  of  immor- 
tality, they  resolved  to  devote  themselves  to  a  life 
not  only  of  virtue,  but  of  penitence.  The  desire 
of  perfection  became  the  ruling  passion  of  their 
soul ;  and  it  is  well  known  that,  while  reason  em- 
braces a  cold  mediocrity,  our  passions  hurry  us 
with  rapid  violence  over  the  space  which  lies  be- 
tween the  most  opposite  extremes."  As  an  auxil- 
iary motive  to  reformation,  the  historian  suggests 
the  clanship  of  the  early  believers,  which  prompted 
them  to  the  most  rigid  strictness  of  life  for  the 
credit  of  their  sect.f 

Thus,  according  to  the  theory  of  Gibbon,  the 
confessed  purity  of  the  primitive  christians  was 
owing,  primarily,  to  the  natural  workings  of  atro- 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  ii.  p.  311.  \  Ibid.  312,  818. 


THE    PROMULGATION    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  337 

cious  but  relenting  guilt,  which,  casting  forth  its 
victims  from  its  own  dark  recesses,  hurried  them 
with  a  sort  of  volcanic  impulse  to  the  contrary  ex- 
cess of  engrossing  sanctity;  and,  secondarily,  to 
the  desire  of  the  new  converts  to  acquire  reputa- 
tion for  the  society  of  which  they  had  become  the 
members. 

The  accusation,  professedly  disapproved,  yet 
sneeringly  indorsed  by  Gibbon,  "  that  the  christians 
allured  into  their  party  the  most  atrocious  crimi- 
nals,"  and  which  he  proffers  in  solution  of  the  ad- 
mitted virtue  of  the  early  converts,  deserves  more 
than  a  passing  notice.  It  has  some  shades  of 
truth,  mixed  with  many  shades  of  disingenuous 
falsity.  It  is  true  that  Christianity  often  displayed 
the  infinitude  of  its  mercy  by  descending  to  the 
ranks  of  the  most  profligate  offenders.  Our  blessed 
Lord  once  touched  with  saving  penitence  the  heart 
of  the  expiring  thief ;  he  once  cast  out  seven  devils 
from  the  woman  who  had  been  a  notorious  offender. 
But  it  was  not  the  dissolute  alone  "  that  the  chris- 
tians allured  into  their  party."  Neither  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  nor  Cornelius,  nor  Sergius  Paulus,  nor 
Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  nor  the  converts  of  the 
household  of  Caesar,  were  "atrocious  criminals." 

The  faith  of  the  cross  freely  proffered  its  great  sal- 
15 


338       THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

vation,  without  distinction  or  exception,  to  the 
whole  fallen  race. 

Had  the  Gospel,  with  its  profession  of  reforming 
all  its  proselytes,  been  an  impious  forgery,  its  crafty 
fabricators  would  not  have  voluntarily  essayed  the 
stony  hearts  of  confirmed  criminals,  lest  by  failure 
they  should  directly  falsify  its  profession.  Refor- 
mation of  profligate  habits,  fixed  by  time,  is  almost  as 
difficult  as  the  restoration  of  vitality  to  the  dead. 
Adroit  fabricators  of  a  wicked  deception,  arroga- 
ting to  itself  the  character  of  truth,  would  never 
have  hazarded  the  success  of  their  enterprise  on 
the  perilous  experiment  of  reclaiming  veterans  in 
iniquity.  How  feeble  the  prospect  of  even  tempo- 
rary reform!  How  imminent  the  jeopardy  of 
speedy,  irrecoverable  relapse,  involving  in  ruinous 
discredit  the  rash  pretenders  to  extraordinary 
powers ! 

The  Gospel  claimed  to  possess,  in  its  regenera- 
ting and  sanctifying  influences,  an  infallible  remedy 
for  healing  the  leprosy  of  moral  evil.  If  the  Gospel 
was  a  fabrication,  its  sagacious  contrivers  knew 
that  their  vaunted  remedy  was  but  a  deceptive  nos- 
trum, and  that  its  failure  on  public  trial  would  be 
likely  to  overwhelm  them  in  hopeless  confusion. 
They  would,  therefore,  have  been  most  wary  in  the 


THE    PROMULGATION    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  SBf^'^'"' 


choice  of  subjects  for  the  decisive  experiment.  If 
they  selected  subjects  of  blameless  lives,  the  failure 
of  their  nostrum  might  perchance  be  the  less  pal- 
pable and  conclusive.  Why  then  should  they  peril 
their  enterprise  and  their  character  on  the  forlorn 
hope  of  reclaiming  hardened  iniquity  ?  Why  should 
they  strive  to  change  the  Ethiopian's  skin,  or  the 
leopard's  spots?  Medical  empiricism,  arrogating 
infallibility,  would  avoid  cases  of  hopeless  ailment. 
Moral  empiricism  claiming  a  sovereign  specific  for 
universal  reform,  would,  in  like  manner,  eschew 
cases  of  gross  and  reckless  licentiousness,  where 
amendment  could  not  be  achieved  without  impugn- 
ing the  settled  principles  of  apostate  humanity. 
The  very  fact,  then,  that  the  early  christian  mis- 
sionaries so  often  and  so  fearlessly  grappled  with 
"  the  most  atrocious  criminals,"  as  fit  subjects  for 
what  they  proclaimed  the  infallibly  reclaiming  med- 
icine of  the  Gospel,  is  proof  of  their  own  full  assu- 
rance that  the  medicine  was  of  divine  efficacy. 

Motives  founded  in  the  pride  of  clanship  could 
not  have  materially  contributed,  as  Gibbon  would 
insinuate,  to  the  matchless  virtues  of  the  primeval 
believers.  They  must  have  commenced  their 
moral  career  before  they  could  have  gained  admis- 
sion to  the  evangehcal  brotherhood.     Their  refer- 


340  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

mation  preceded  their  admission,  instead  of  being  its 
effect.  And  when  in  the  history  of  our  race  has 
the  pride  of  clanship  voluntarily  endured  a  life  of 
privation,  penury  and  suffering;  the  spoiling  of 
goods ;  the  poisoned  darts  of  calumny  ;  the  rending 
of  the  warm  ties  that  bind  the  heart  to  kindred,  and 
to  the  loved  companions  of  early  youth  ?  When 
has  it  inspired  its  possessors  with  the  high  resolve 
of  joyously  submitting  to  be  sawn  asunder  with 
saws;  torn  limb  from  hmb  by  wild  horses;  con- 
sumed by  slow  fires ;  rent  in  pieces  by  ravenous 
beasts;  nailed  to  the  protracted  death  agonies 
of  the  cross  ?  When  has  such  zeal  for  party, 
so  insanely  chivalrous,  so  recklessly  self-abandon- 
ing, ever  overspread  a  hemisphere,  and  descended 
through  successive  generations  ? 

Thus  abortive  were  the  efforts  of  the  learned  and 
eloquent  unbeliever  to  detect  any  mixture  of  alloy 
in  the  pure  gold  of  primeval  christian  sanctity. 
The  holiness  embodied  in  the  lives  of  the  primitive 
faithful,  must  have  been  an  emanation  faint  indeed, 
yet  genuine,  of  the  Holiness  that  dwells  "  between 
the  cherubims."  Where,  in  the  multitudinous  an- 
nals of  polytheism  can  be  found  traces  of  any  great 
moral  reform  pervading  the  masses  of  society,  and 
reaching  from  country  to  country,  from  clime  to 


THE    PROMULGATION    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  341 

clime,  and  from,  generation  to  generation  ?  What 
has  infidehty  at  any  time  done  to  meliorate  the 
hearts  or  the  habits  of  human  kind  ?  How  has  it 
come  to  pass  that  the  only  resm'rection  of  the  na- 
tions from  the  grave  of  sin  to  a  life  of  virtue,  ever 
v^^itnessed  in  the  flight  of  time,  was  achieved  by  the 
benignant  influences,  the  serene  potency  of  the  Gos- 
pel ?  The  stupendous  change  wrought  by  Christi- 
anity in  the  morals  of  apostate  humanity  is  instinct 
with  demonstration  of  its  celestial  origin. 

The  medicine  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  for 
restoring  to  virtue  our  fallen  race  was  not  com- 
pounded in  the  laboratories  of  earth.  Its  vital  ele- 
ment is  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God.  It  has  from 
the  beginning  healed  all  who  were  willing  to  be 
made  whole.  Nor  has  hardened  guilt  been  able  to 
elude  or  to  resist  it.  It  has  reclaimed  the  sottishly 
intemperate,  assuaged  to  lamb-like  gentleness  the 
fury  of  the  homicide,  restored  to  the  practice  of  the 
chaste  virtues  the  inmate  of  the  brothel.  During 
the  miraculous  age  it  wrought  astounding  prodigies 
in  the  reformation  of  vast  kingdoms  and  continents. 
The  lofty  and  pure  morality  of  the  primitive  chris- 
tians is  a  phenomenon  at  which  infidelity  has  gazed 
and  wondered  for  eighteen  centuries.  Nor  did  the 
great  reforming  medicine  of  the  Gospel  lose  its  ef- 


342      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

ficacy  with  the  termination  of  the  miraculous 
epoch.  Though  less  magnificent  in  its  displays,  it 
has,  even  to  the  present  day,  unceasingly  spread  its 
purifying  and  healing  influences,  like  the  gentle 
dews  of  heaven,  upon  every  province,  village,  pal- 
ace, and  cottage  of  Christendom. 

Fifthly. — The  fifth  cause  assigned  by  Gibbon  for 
the  spread  of  the  Gospel,  is  "  the  union  and  disci- 
pline of  the  christian  republic,  which,"  says  he, 
"  gradually  formed  an  independent  state  in  the  heart 
of  the  Roman  empire."  But,  upon  his  own  show- 
ing, no  federative  union  of  the  christian  churches 
existed,  until  near  the  close  of  the  second  century ; 
and  previous  to  that  time  the  faith  of  the  cross  had 
achieved  its  most  wonderful  triumphs.  During  the 
apostolic  age  each  congregation  of  believers  was 
distinct  and  independent,  connected  with  its  sister 
churches  only  by  the  general  ties  of  a  common  faith. 
Its  officers  were  a  bishop,  presbyters,  and  deacons. 
Equality  and  independence  formed  the  basis  of  its 
organization.  Even  its  bishop  was  constantly  re- 
minded by  the  humbleness  of  his  duties,  that  he  was 
one  of  the  successors  of  Him  who  had  washed  his 
disciples  feet.  Gibbon  himself  alleges  that  "such 
was  the  mild  and  equal  constitution  by  which  the 


THE    PROMULGATION    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  343 

christians   were   governed   more   than  a   hundred 
years  after  the  death  of  the  apostles."* 

And  this  was  the  palmy  state  of  Christianity. 
Justin  Martyr,  who  wrote  about  the  year  one  hun- 
dred and  forty,  affirmed,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
that  it  had  then  spread  into  every  country  of  the 
known  world,  whether  civilized  or  barbarous.  To 
impute  the  primeval  success  of  Christianity  to  the 
federative  union  of  the  churches,  which  did  not 
exist  until  near  sixty  years  after  Justin  Martyr 
wrote,  is  to  make  the  alleged  effect  precede  its 
assigned  cause — an  absurdity  in  reasoning  not 
without  parallels  in  infidel  logic.  The  discipline 
of  the  churches  had  for  its  object  the  orthodoxy 
and  purity  of  their  own  respective  members.  Its 
influence  was  but  indirect  and  reflective  in  spread- 
ing the  Gospel  among  the  nations. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  second  century,  and 
after  Christianity  had  made  gigantic  strides  in  the 
spiritual  conquest  of  the  world,  provincial  synods 
were  instituted.  They  originated  in  Greece  and 
Asia  Minor,  and  seem  to  have  been  suggested  by 
the  example  of  the  Amphyctions,  the  Achaean 
league,   and  the  assemblies   of  the   Ionian   cities. 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  iL  p.  328, 


344  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

They  soon  extended  throughout  the  empire;  and 
it  became  the  general  custom  for  the  bishops  to 
meet  for  consultation  in  the  capitals  of  their  respec- 
tive provinces,  during  the  seasons  of  spring  and 
autumn.  A  correspondence  was  established  be- 
tween the  local  synods,  and  the  proceedings  of 
each  were  regularly  communicated  to  all.  But  the 
federative  churches  had  no  funds,  except  such  as 
had  been  contributed  for  domestic  charities;  no 
missionaries  were  in  their  pay ;  no  temporal  force 
was  at  their  beck ;  the  strong  arm  of  civil  power 
was  constantly  uplifted  against  them.  It  is  to  be 
borne  in  mind,  that  no  general  council  was  held 
until  after  Christianity  had  ascended  the  imperial 
throne.  The  first  general  council  of  Christendom 
was  that  of  Nice,  convened  by  Constantine  the 
Great,  in  the  year  three  hundred  and  twenty-five. 
The  chief  human  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  for  the  primitive  diffusion  of  Christi- 
anity, was  the  lonely  pilgrim,  who,  like  the  Saint 
of  Tarsus,  traversed  mountains  and  deserts,  king- 
doms and  continents,  in  the  midst  of  privations, 
scoffings,  and  perils,  working  with  his  own  hands, 
lest  he  should  be  chargeable  to  the  churches. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  learned,  eloquent,  and 
profound  historian  of  "  The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     345 

Roman  Empire,"  has  totally  failed  in  his  colossal 
effort  to  discover  causes  merely  human  for  the 
phenomenon  of  the  Gospel's  promulgation.  His 
failure  was  no  less  signal  than  that  of  the  essay  of  the 
giants  to  scale  the  heavens.  Should  all  its  other 
miracles  be  blotted  from  the  Sacred  Record,  that 
of  its  early,  rapid,  and  extensive  spread  against 
such  fearful  obstacles,  extraneous  and  inherent, 
without  earthly  means  to  impel  it  onward,  would 
remain  a  monument  of  its  celestial  lineage,  im- 
movable and  commanding  as  the  everlasting 
mountains.  The  sudden  dispersion  of  the  thick 
darkness  of  the  nations  before  the  morning  rays  of 
the  moral  Sun,  was  no  less  demonstrative  of  al- 
mighty agency  than  was  the  first  coming  forth  of 

"  The  powerful  king  of  day 
Rejoicing  in  the  east" 

The  history  of  the  world  contains  no  event  bear- 
ing similitude  to  the  original  spread  of  the  Gospel. 
Mohammed  disavowed  the  power  of  working  signs 
and  wonders,  and  thus  sagaciously  avoided  the 
quicksands  in  which  Christianity  must  inevitably 
have  perished,  had  its  claim  to  miracles  been  false. 
As  a  mere  teacher,  he  signally  failed.  With  every 
advantage  of  birth,  connections,  talents,  education, 
15* 


346      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

and  address,  the  arts  of  persuasion  gained  him  in 
the  first  three  years  of  his  enterprise,  only  fourteen 
converts.  During  the  next  ten  years  the  progress 
of  his  mission  continued  to  be  hesitating  and  slow. 
About  the  close  of  that  period,  poHtical  intrigue  ob- 
tained for  him  the  sovereignty  of  the  neighboring 
city  of  Medina.  This  acquisition  transformed  the 
obsequious  instructor  into  the  military  chieftain. 
In  the  subsequent  revelations,  of  which  he  pre- 
tended to  be  the  recipient,  the  prophet  of  Medina 
ventured  upon  a  fiercer  and  more  sanguinary  tone 
than  had  been  assumed  by  the  preacher  of  Mecca. 
His  now  bolder  creed  was  calculated  to  arouse 
all  the  energies  of  martial  frenzy.  In  addition  to 
the  four  wives  allowed  to  the  ordinary  believer,  it 
surrendered  to  the  soldier  of  the  crescent  the  fe- 
male captives  achieved  by  his  prowess.  It  prom- 
ised the  most  voluptuous  delights  of  its  sensual 
heaven  to  the  intrepid  champion  of  the  faith. 
"The  sword,"  says  Mohammed,  "is  the  key  of 
heaven  and  of  hell;  a  drop  of  blood  shed  in  the 
cause  of  God,  a  night  spent  in  arms,  is  of  more 
avail  than  two  months'  fasting  or  prayer ;  whoso- 
ever falls  in  battle,  his  sins  are  forgiven ;  at  the  day 
of  judgment,  his  wounds  shall  be  resplendent  as 
vermiHon  and  odoriferous  as  musk;  and  the  loss 


THE    PROMULGATION    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  347 

of  his  limbs  shall  be  supplied  by  the  wings  of  angels 
and  cherubim."*  To  him  were  to  be  allotted,  as 
long  as  eternity  shall  last,  seventy-two  houris  or 
nymphs  of  paradise,  of  celestial  beauty,  virgin  pu- 
rity, and  unfading  youth.  The  impostor  of  Arabia 
well  knew  the  avenues  to  the  freebooter's  heart. 
" Fight,  fight !  Paradise,  paradise !"  "I  see,  beck- 
oning me  upwards,  the  black-eyed  maidens,"!  were 
the  frantic  war-cries  that  sounded  and  reverberated 
along  the  ranks  of  the  Saracen  hosts. 

Such  a  creed  placed  at  the  beck  of  the  Arabian 
adventurer  thronging  bands  of  lawless  desperadoes. 
His  faith  was  disseminated,  not  by  the  power  of 
conviction,  but  by  the  force  of  arms.  Religion 
was  only  his  pretence ;  his  ambition  was  martial 
conquest.  -Novelty  and  oneness  of  theological  be- 
lief he  deemed  the  best  auxiharies  and  cements  of 
his  domination.  To  the  Jews  and  christians  he 
proffered  the  Koran,  the  tribute,  or  the  sword ;  on 
the  pagans,  he  imposed  the  summary  alternative  of 
conversion  or  death.  The  triumph  of  his  impos- 
ture was  but  a  miUtary  achievement.  As  such  it 
was  no  more  marvellous  than  the  barbarian  con- 
quests of  Zingis  Khan  or  Tamerlane.     Its  epoch 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  ix.  p.  297.  f  Ibid.  pp.  385,  40Y. 


348  THE    GOSPEL    ITS    OWN    ADVOCATE. 

was  peculiarly  favorable  to  its  success.  Even 
Gibbon  affirms  that,  "  The  birth  of  Mohammed  v^ras 
fortunately  placed  in  the  most  degenerate  and  dis- 
orderly period  of  the  Persians,  the  Romans,  and 
the  barbarians  of  Europe ;  the  empires  of  Trajan, 
or  even  of  Constantine  or  Charlemagne,  would 
have  repelled  the  assault  of  the  naked  Saracens, 
and  the  torrent  of  fanaticism  might  have  been  ob- 
scurely lost  in  the  sands  of  Arabia."* 

If  we  compare  the  triumphs  of  the  primitive  her- 
alds of  the  Gospel  with  the  limited  success  of  the 
christian  missionaries,  who  labored  for  the  conver- 
sion of  heathen  nations  during  the  ten  centuries 
preceding  the  present,  the  conclusion  will  be  yet 
more  irresistibly  confirmed,  that  the  former  must 
have  been  aided  "  with  signs  and  wonders,  and  with 
divers  miracles,"  and  special  "gifts  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  In  no  period  of  the  history  of  the  chris- 
tian church,  has  the  evangelizing  spirit  been  wholly 
inert.  Even  the  wild  crusades  of  the  dark  ages 
had  for  their  avowed  object  the  extension  of  Chris- 
tianity. Papal  Rome  has  ever  cherished  the  favor- 
ite project  of  extending  her  spiritual  dominion  into 
pagan  countries.     Francis  Xavier,  in  the  sixteenth 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  ix.  p.  361.         ^ 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     349 

century,  sowed  the  seeds  of  salvation  in  the  island 
of  Japan,  revived  for  a  time  the  drooping  converts 
of  India,  and  sailed  for  China  w^ith  the  sublime  hope 
of  transforming  into  a  province  of  Christendom  that 
mighty  empire.  He  died  a  martyr  to  his  indefati- 
gable zeal,  within  sight  of  the  Chinese  coast.  Since 
the  Reformation,  protestantism  has  rivalled,  per- 
haps surpassed,  her  elder  sister  in  efforts  to  dissem- 
inate "to  all  people'*  the  "good  tidings  of  great 

joy." 

In  temporal  advantages,  the  modem  missionaries 
immeasurably  surpassed  the  ancient.  The  mod- 
erns went  forth,  since  the  termination  of  the  dark 
ages,  from  civilized  nations  whom  the  heathen  re- 
garded as  a  sort  of  superior  beings ;  they  were  edu- 
cated men,  familiar  by  previous  study  with  the  lan- 
guages in  which  they  taught;  christian  charity 
left  them  not  utterly  destitute  of  pecuniary  means ; 
the  art  of  printing  and  the  mariner's  compass  af- 
forded them  important  facilities;  commerce  was 
their  willing  handmaiden ;  and  seldom  did  they  fail 
in  zeal,  in  purity  of  life,  in  strenuousness  of  honest 
effort. 

But  between  the  limited  success  of  the  mission- 
aries of  the  Gospel,  in  the  ten  centuries  preceding 
the  nineteenth,  and  the  stupendous  triumphs  of  its 


350      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

primitive  heralds,  how  striking  v^^as  the  contrast! 
The  achievements  of  the  modern  missionaries, 
though  often  brilHant,  w^ere  always  ephemeral. 
Even  the  hopeful  fruits  of  Xavier's  pious  toils 
were,  soon  after  his  decease,  swept  away  by  the 
returning  flood  of  polytheism,  as  the  closing  waves 
of  ocean  obliterate  the  track  of  the  passing  ship. 
Paul  may  plant,  and  Apollos  water ;  it  is  God  alone 
who  gives  the  increase. 

Paley  expatiates  upon  the  contrast  between  the 
triumphs  of  the  original  apostles,  and  the  compara- 
tive failure  of  their  spiritual  successors ;  and  thence 
deduces  the  irresistible  conclusion  that  the  ancients 
were  endowed  with  miraculous  gifts  not  vouch- 
safed to  the  moderns.  Bishop  Wilson,  of  Calcutta, 
resident  for  years  in  the  centre  of  oriental  missions, 
remarks :  "  A  greater  number  of  Jews  certainly 
were  converted  under  the  first  discourse  of  Saiut 
Peter,  at  the  day  of  pentecost,  than  have  been 
gained  during  the  eighteen  hundred  years  which 
have  elapsed  since.  And  as  to  the  heathen,  proba- 
bly one  year  of  the  apostolic  labors  amongst  the 
gentiles  equalled  in  point  of  success,  not  merely  the 
thirty  or  forty  years  of  the  united  exertions  of  the 
christian  church  with  all  its  external  advantages  of 
superior  civilization,  influence,  authority,  and  learn- 


THE  PROMULGATION  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     351 

ing  in  our  own  day,  but  the  thousand  years  which 
preceded  them."*  The  American  bishop,  Mcll- 
vaine,  pronounces  his  conviction,  that  "  Paul  was 
instrumental  in  converting  more  heathens  in  thirty 
years  than  all  modern  missionaries  in  the  last  five 

hundred."  t 

But  within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  new 
energies  have  been  imparted  to  the  evangelizing 
spirit.  An  era  has  burst  forth  seemingly  unparal- 
leled save  by  the  apostolic.  The  communicants  of 
christian  churches  gathered  from  heathenism  in  the 
eastern  and  western  continents,  and  in  the  isles  of 
the  remotest  seas,  and  now  hailed  as  living  trophies 
of  redeeming  grace,  have  swollen  to  a  mighty  host. 
If  these  conversions  to  Christianity  are  genuine, 
they  afford  cheering  hopes  that  the  God  of  pente- 
cost  is  now  striving  with  the  nations.  Perhaps  his 
own  "  set  time"  to  favor  Zion  may  not  be  remote. 
We  would  not  irreverently  speculate  upon  "the 
times  or  the  seasons."  J  "  One  day  is  with  the  Lord 
as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  one 
day."  But  we  have  full  assurance  that  the  future 
reign  of  the  Messiah  on  earth  is  just  as  certain  as 


*  Wilson's  Evidences  of  Christianity,  vol.  i.  p.  226. 

f  McHvaine's  Evidences  of  Christianity,  p.  280.        X  -^^ts  i.  1. 


352      THE  GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  ADVOCATE. 

his  present  reign  in  heaven : — "  For  the  mouth  of 
the  Lord  hath  spoken  it."  And  v\rhen  v^e  contem- 
plate the  spiritual  dearth  of  the  preceding  centuries, 
and  compare  it  v^ith  the  prospects  opened  by  the 
last  tv^enty-five  years,  v^e  v^^ill  accuse  none  of  in- 
sane enthusiasm  if  they  regard  the  streaks  of  dawn- 
ing light  in  the  moral  heavens  as  harbingers  of  that 
long  and  glorious  day  when  the  beams  of  the  Sun 
of  righteousness  shall  fill  the  whole  habitable  world 
"  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 


"  Come  then,  and  added  to  thy  many  crowns, 
Receive  yet  one,  the  crown  of  all  the  earth, 
Thou  who  alone  art  worthy  1     It  was  thine 
By  ancient  covenant,  ere  nature's  birth ; 
And  thou  hast  made  it  thine  by  purchase  since, 
And  overpaid  its  value  with  thy  blood."* 


THE   END. 


D.  Appleton  Sf  Co.^s  Publications. 


RELIGIOUS     WORKS. 


75 


ARNOLD'S  Rugby  School  Ser- 
mons        -       .        -       -  -$ 

ANTIION'S  Catechism  on  the  Ho- 
milies 

ANTHON'S  Easy  Catechism  for 
Young  Children 

A  KEMPIS.  Of  the  Imitation  of 
Christ 

BURNET'S  History  of  the  Refer- 
mation.  Edited  by  Dr.  Nares. 
23  Portraits.    4  vols.        -  -  6  00 

Do.    Cheap  edition.    3  toIs.         -  2  50 

BURNET  on  the  Thirty-nine  Ar- 
ticles.   Best  edition        -  -  2  00 

BEAVEN'S  Help  to  Catechising. 
Edited  by  Dr.  Anthon         -        -      06 

BRADLEY'S  Parochial  and  Prac- 
tical Sermons.    4  vols,  in  1         -  2  00 

CRUDEN'S  Concordance  to  the 
New  Testament  .        -        -        -      50 

COTTER.  The  Romish  Mass  and 
Rubrics.    Translated       -  -      38 

CHRISTMAS  Bells  and  other  Po- 
cms       --••••      f)0 

COIT,  Dr.    Puritanism  Reviewed  1  00 

EVANS'  Rectory  of  Valehead      -      50 

FABER  on  the  Doctrine  of  Elec- 
tion •        -       -       -  -  1  50 

FOUR  GOSPELS,  arranged  as  a 
Practical  Family  Commentary 
for  Every  Day  in  the  Year.  8vo. 
Illustrated  -        -        -        -  2  00 

POSTERS'  Essay  on  Christian 
Morals       ....  -50 

GRESLEY'S  Portrait  of  an  Eng- 
lish Churchman  -        -        -        -      50 

GRESLEY'S  TREATISE  on 
Preaching        •       -       -  -  1  25 

HOOK.  The  Cross  of  Christ ;  Me- 
ditations on  our  Saviour 

HOOKER'S  Complete  Works. 
Edited  by  Ke^le.    2  vols.    -        -  4  50 

IVES,  Bishop.    Sermons.    16mo.       50 

JARVIS.  Reply  to  Mikier's  End  of 
Controversy.     12mo. 

KEBLE'S  Christian  Year,  hand 
somely  printed 

KINGSLEY'S  Sacred  Choir 

LAYMAN'S  Lesson  to  a  Lord  Bi 
shop  on  SacerdotalPowers.  12mo 

LYRA  Apostolica.    ISmo. 

MARSHALL'S  Notes  on  Episco 
pacy.    Edited  by  Wainwright  ■ 

MANNING  on  the  Unity  of  the 
Church.    16mo.       -       -  -      75 


50 


75 


1  00 


08 


MAGEE  on  Atonement  ar.d  Sacri- 
fice.   2  vols.    Svo.      -        -        -  5  00 

MORELL'S  Philosophy  of  Reli- 
gion.    I2mo.        -        -        -        #1  25 

MOCHLER'S  Symbolics.    Svo.    -2  25 

NEWMAN'S  Sermons  on  Sjubects 
of  the  Day        ... 

NEWMAN'S  Essay  on  Christian 
Doctrine.  Svo.  Paper  cover,  25 
cts. ;  cloth 60 

OGILBY'S Lectures  on  theChurch, 
16rao.        ....  -60 

OGILBY  on  Lay  Baptism.    12mo.      50 

PAGET'S  Tales  of  the  Village.  3 
vols.    16mo.        -       -       -       -  1  2b 

PALMER  on  the  Church.  Edited 
by  Bishop  Whittingham.  2  vols,  5  00 

PEARSON  on  the  Creed.  Edited 
by  Dobson.     Svo.    -        -  -  2  00 

PULPIT  Cyclopaedia  and  Minis- 
ter's Companion.  Svo.,  600  pp., 
Si2  50;  sheep        -        -        -        -  2  75 

PSALTER,  (The)  or  Psalms  of 
David,  pointed  for  chanting. 
Edited  by  Dr.Muhlenberg.  12mo., 
38c. ;  sheep  ....      50 

SOUTHARD,  "The  Mystery  of 
Godliness."    Svo.     - 

SKETCHES  and  Skeletons  of  500 
Sermons.  By  the  Author  of  "  The 
Pulpit  Cyclopaedia."    Svo.         -  2  50 

SPENCER'S  Christian  Instructed  100 

SHERLOCK'S  Practical  Christian      71 

SPINCKE'S  Manual  of  Private  De- 
votion   71 

SUTTON'S  DisceVivere,  Learn  to 
Live.    16mo.    ...  -      75 

SWARTZ.  Letters  to  my  God- 
cnild.    32mo.       ....      33 

TRENCH'S  Notes  on  the  Miracles   1  76 

TAYLOR'S  Golden  Grove  -      50 

TAYLOR'S  Holy  Living  and  Dy- 
ing       -        -        -        -°       -      ^  1  00 

TAYLOR'S  Episcopacy  Asserted 
and  Maintained 

WILBERFORCE'S  Manual  for 
Communicants    ....      38 

WILSON'S  Lectures  on  Colos- 
sians.    12mo.  -        -  -      75 

WILSON'S  Sacra  Privata.  16mo.       75 

WHISTON'S  Constitution  of  the 
Holy  Apostles,  including  the 
Canons.  Translated  by  Doctor 
Chase     Svo.        -        -        -        -  2  50 

WYATT'S  Christian  Altar  -     38 


75 


75 


BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER.  New  Standard  Edition.  The  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments  and  other  Rites  and  Cerft- 
monies  of  the  Church,  according  to  the  use  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America,  together  with  the  Psalter  or  Psalms  of  David 
Illustrated  with  Steel  Engravings  by  Overbeck,  and  a  finely  illiuninated  titl» 
page,  in  various  elegant  bindings.    Five  differeat  sizes. 


D.  Appleton  ^  Co.^s  Publications. 


ILLUSTRATED  STANDARD   POETS. 

HALLECK'S  COMPLETE  POETICAL  WORKS.  Beautifully  illustrated 
with  fine  Steel  Engravings  and  a  Portrait.  1  vol.  8vo.,  finest  paper,  cloth  extra, 
gilt  edges,  $3 ;  morocco  extra,  $5 ;  morocco  antique,  $6. 

DYRON'S  COMPLETE  POETICAL  WORKS.  Illustrated  with  elegant  Steel 
Engravings  and  Portrait.  1  vol.  8vo.,  fine  paper,  cloth,  $4 ;  cloth,  gilt  leave*, 
84  50 ;  morocco  extra,  $6  50. 

Cheaper  edition,  with  Portrait  and  Vignette,  $2  ST 

HOORE'S  COMPLETE  POETICAL  WORKS.  Illustrated  with  vary  fin< 
Steel  Engravings  and  Portrait.  I  vol.  8vo.,  fine  paper,  cloth,  $4 ;  cloth,  gilt 
edges,  $5 ;  morocco  extra,  $7. 

Cheaper  edition,  with  Portrait  and  Vignette,  $2  50. 

SOUTHEY'S  COMPLETE  POETICAL  WORKS.  Illustrated  ^ith  several 
beautiful  Steel  Engravings.  1  vol.  8vo.,  fine  paper,  cloth,  $3  50;  cloth,  gilt 
edges,  $4  50 ;  morocco  extra,  $6  50. 

SACRED  POETS  (The)  of  England  and  America,  for  Three  Centunes.  Edited 
by  Rufus  W.  Griswold.  Illustrated  with  Steel  Engravings.  I  vol.  Svo.,  cloth 
$2  50 ;  gilt  edges,  $3 ;  morocco,  $3  50  ;  morocco  extra,  $4. 

POEMS  BY  AMELIA.  New  and  enlarged  edition,  beautifully  illustrated  with 
original  designs,  by  Weir,  and  Portrait  of  the  Author.  1  vol.  Svo.,  cloth  extra, 
gilt  edges,  $3:  morocco  extra,  84;  morocco  antique,  $5:  12mo.,  without  Plates, 
81  25  ;  gilt  edges,  81  50. 

No  expense  has  been  spared  in  the  mechanical  execution  of  the  above  popular 
standard  authors. 

CABINET   EDITIONS. 

CAMPBELL'S  COMPLETE  POETICAL  WORKS.  Illustrated  with  Ste«4 
Engravings  and  a  Portrait.  16mo.,  cloth,  8150;  gilt  edges,  82  25;  morocco 
extra,  83. 

SUTLER'S  HUDIBRAS,  with  Notes  by  Nash.  Illustrated  with  Portraits.  16mo., 
cloth,  81  50 ;  gilt  edges,  82  25 ;  morocco  extra,  83. 

DANTE'S  POEMS.  Translated  by  Cary.  Illustrated  with  a  fine  Portrait  and 
12  Engravings.    16mo.,  cloth,  81  50 ;  gilt  edges,  82  25 ;  morocco  extra,  83. 

TASSO-S  JERUSALEM  DEL  VERED.  Transtatedby  Wiffen.  Illustrated  with 
a  Portrait  and  Steel  Engravings.  1  vol.  16mo.  Uniform  with  "  Dante."  Cloth, 
81  50 ;  gilt  edges,  82  25 ;  morocco,  83. 

BYRON'S  CHILDE  HAROLD'S  PILGRIMAGE.  16rao.  Illustrated,  cloth, 
81  25 ;  gilt  edges,  82;  morocco  extra,  82  50. 

BURNS'  COMPLETE  POETICAL  WORKS,  with  Life,  Glossary,  &c.  16mo., 
cloth,  illustrated,  $1  25 ;  gilt  edges,  82 ;  morocco  extra,  82  50. 

COWPER'S  COMPLETE  POETICAL  WORKS,  with  Life,  &c.    Morocco  ex- 

tra,  2  vols,  in  1,  83 ;  cloth,  81  50 ;  gilt  edges,  82  50. 

MILTON'S  COMPLETE  POETICAL  WORKS,  with  Life,  &c.    16mo.,  cloth, 

illustrated,  81  25;  gilt  edges,  82  ;  morocco  extra,  82  50. 

BCOTT'S   POETICAL  WORKS,   with  Life,  &c.     Cloth,  16mo.,  Allustrated, 

81  25;  gilt  edges,  82;  morocco  extra,  82  50. 

HEMANS'  COMPLETE  POETICAL  WORKS.  Edited  by  her  Sister.  2  vols., 
16mo.,  with  10  Steel  Plates,  cloth,  82  50 ;  gilt  edges,  84  ;  Turkey  morocco,  85. 

POPE'S  POETICAL  WORKS.  Illuetrated  with  24  Steel  Engravings.  16mo- 
cloth,  81  50 ;  gilt  «dges,  82  25 ;  morocco,  83. 


D.  Appleion  ^  Co.^s  Publications. 


HISTORICAL    AND   BIOGRA- 
PHICAL WORKS. 

ARNOLD,  (Dr.)  Early  History  of 
Rome.    2  vols.    8vo.  •       -        -$5  00 

A.RNOLD,  (Dr.)  History  of  the 
Later  Roman  Commonwealth. 
8vo. 2  50 

ARNOLD,  (Dr.)  Lectures  on  Mo- 
dern  History,  edited  by  Profes- 
sor Reed.     12mo.         -        -        -  1  25 

ARNOLD,  (Dr.)  Life  and  Corre- 
spondence, by  the  Rev.  A.  P. 
Stanley.    2d  ed.    8vo.      -  -  2  00 

BLRNETT'S  History  of  the  North 
western  Territory.    Svo.    -        -  2  50 

CARLYLE'S  Life  of  Schiller.  A 
new  edition.     12mo.    -        -        •      75 

COIT'S  History  of  Puritanism 
l2mo. 1  00 

EVELYN'S  Life  of  Mrs.   Godol- 

{ihin,  edited  by  Bishop  of  Oxford. 
2mo         .       -       -       -  -     50 

FROST.  (Professor)  History  of  the 
United  States  Navy.  Plates.  12mo.  1  00 

FROST.  (Professor)  History  of  the 
United  States  Army.  Plates. 
12rao.  1  00 

FROST,  (Professor)  History  of  the 
Indians  of  North  America.  Plates. 
12mo. 1  00 

FROSTj  (Professor)  History  of  the 
Colonies  of  America.  12mo.  Il- 
lustrated        1  00 

FROST,  (Professor)  Life  of  Gen. 
Zachary  Taylor.  12mo.  Illus- 
trated.   1 

GUIZOT'S  History  of  Civilization 
in  Europe,  edited  by  Professor 
Henry.     12mo  •        -  -  1  00 

GUIZOT'S  Complete  History  of 
Civilization,  translated  by  Haz- 
lett.    4  vols.         -        -        -       -  3  50 

GUIZOT'S  History  of  the  English 
Revolution,  1640.    12mo.  -  1  25 

GAYARRE'S  Romance  of  the  His- 
tory of  Louisiana.     12mo.  -        •  1  00 

HULL,  (General)  Military  and  Ci 
vil  Life.    Svo.  -        -        -  -  2  00 

KING,  (Colonel)  History  of  the  Ar- 
gentme  Republic.     12mo.  -      75 

KOHLRAUSCH'S  Complete  His- 
tory of  Germany.    Svo.       -        -  1  50 

MAHON'S  (Lord)  History  of  Eng- 
land, edited  by  Professor  Reed. 
2  vols.,  Svo.      -        -        .  -5  00 

MICHELET'S  History  of  France 
from  the  Earliest  Period.  2  vols.  5  50 

MICHELET'S  History  of  the  Ro- 
man Republic.  12mo. 

MICHELET'S  History  of  the  Peo- 
ple.   12mo.   .       .  .       -     63 


MICHELET'S  Life  of  Martin  Lu- 
ther.    12mo.     -        -        -  -to  7 

NAPOLEON,  Life  of,  from  the 
J'rench  of  Laurent  De  L'Ardeche. 
2  vols.    Svo.    500  cuts        -        -  4  Ou 

O'CALLAGHAN'S  Early  History 
of  New  York.    2  vols.     Svo.      -  5  OC 

ROWAN'S  History  of  the  Freach 
Kevolution.    18mo.    2  vols,  in  1      63 

SEWELL'S  Child's  History  of 
Rome.    ISmo.      -        -        -        -      60 

SOUTHEY'S  Life  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well.    ISmo.       ....     38 

SPRAGUE'S  History  of  the  Flo- 
rida War.   Map  and  Plates.  Svo.  2  60 

STEVEN'S  History  of  Georgia, 
vol.  1 2  60 

TAYLOR'S  Natural  History  of 
Society  in  the  Barbarous  and  Ci- 
vilized State.    2  vols.     12mo.    -  2  25 

TAYLOR'S  Manual  of  Ancient  and 
Modern  History.  Edited  by  Pro- 
fessor Henry.    Svo.         -  -  2  60 

TAYLOR'S  Ancient  History— Se- 
parate   1  25 

TAYLOR'S  Modem  History— Se- 

earate       -       -       -       -  -  1  6| 

sed  as  a  Text-book  in  several 
Colleges. 
TWISS.    History  of  the   Oregon 
Territory.    12mo.       .       .       .     7| 

LAW   BOOKS. 

ANTHON'S  Law  Student  ;  or, 
Guides  to  the  Study  of  the  Law 
in  its  Principles. 

HOLCOMBE's  Digest  of  the  De. 
cisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  U.  S.,  from  its  Commence- 
ment to  the  present  time.  Large 
Svo.,  law  sheep        -        -  -  6  00 

HOLCOMBE'S  Supreme  Court 
Leading  Cases  on  Commercial 
Law.    Svo. ,  law  sheep        -        -  4  (X) 

HOLCOMBE'S  Law  ofDebtor  and 
Creditor  in  the  United  States  »nd 
Canada.    Svo.  -        -  .  3  6C 

SMITH'S  Compendium  •f  Mercan- 
tile Law.  With  Large  Ameri- 
can Additions,  by  Holcombe  and 
Gholson.  Svo.,  law  sheep  -  4  01 
These  volumes  are  highly  com- 
mended by  Justices  Taney  and 
Woodbury,  Daniel  V^ebster, 
Rufus  Choate,  and  Chancellor 
Kent,  &c. 

WARREN'S  Popular  and  Practi- 
cal Introduction  to  Law  Studies, 
With  American  additions,  by 
Thomas  W.  Clerks.    Svo.,  law 

S» 


D,  Appleton  ^  Co.'s  Publications. 


NOVELS  AND  TALES. 

CORBOULD'S  History  and  Adventures  of  Margaret  Catchpole.    8vo.    2  PlatM 

25  CIS. 
DON  QUIXOTTE  de  la  Mancha.   Translated  from  the  Spanish.  Illustrated  wit> 

18  Steel  Engravings.    16m0j  cloth.    $1  50. 
DUMAS'  Marguerite  de  Valois.    A  Novel.    8vo.    25  cts. 
ELLEN  MIDDLETON.    A  Tale.    By  Lady  Fullerton.    12mo.    75  cts. 
FRIENDS  AND  FORTUNE.    A  Moral  Tale.    By  Miss  Dewey.    12mo.    75ct» 
GOLDSMITH'S  Vicar  of  Wakefield.    Illustrated.    12mo.    75  cts. 
GRACE  LESLIE.     A  Tale.     12mo.    75  cts. 
GRANTLEY  MANOR.    A  Tale.    By  Lady  Fullerton.    12mo,    Pajer,  50  ctt. 

cloth,  75  cts. 
LADY  ALICE  ;  or,  The  New  Una.    Svo.    Paper,  38  cts. 
LAMARTINE'S  Les  Confidences  et  Raphael.    Svo.    81. 
LAMARTINE'S  CONFIDENTIAL  DISCLOSURES.    12mo.    50  cts. 
LOVER'S  (Samuel)  Handy  Andy.    Svo.    Paper,  50  cts. 

£  a.  d.  Treasure  Trove.    Svo.    Paper,  25  cts. 

MACKINTOSH  (M.  J.)    Two- Lives;  or,  To  Seem  and  To  Be.    12mo.    Paper 

50  cts. ;  cloth,  75  cts. 

Aunt  Kitty's  Tales.    12mo.    Paper,  50  cts. ;  cloth,  75  eta. 

Charms  and  Counter  Charms.    Paper,  75  cts. ;  cloth,  tL 

MAXWELL'S  Way-side  and  Border  Sketches,    Svo.    25  cts. 

Fortunes  of  Hector  O'Halloran.    Svo.    50  cts. 

MANZONI.    The  Betrothed  Lovers.    2  vols.    12mo.    $1  50. 

MAIDEN  AUNT  (The).    By  S.  M.    12mo.    75  cts. 

SEW  ELL  (Miss).    Amy  Herbert.    A  Tale.    l2mo.  Paper,  50  cts.  ;  cloth,  75  cts. 

•    Gertrude.    A  Tale.    12mo.    Paper,  50  cts. ;  cloth,  75  cts. 

Laneton  Parsonage.    3  vols.    12mo.    Paper,  $1  50 ;   clotlw 

$2  25. 

Margaret  Percival.    2  vols.    Paper,  $1 ;  cloth,  $1  50. 

Walter  Lorimer,  and  other  Tales.    12mo.    75  cts. 


TAYLOR,  (General)  Anecdote  Book,  Letters,  .Stc.    Svo.    25  cts, 
ZSCHOKKE.    Incidents  of  Social  Life.    12mo.    $1. 

MINIATURE    CLASSICAL  LIBRARY. 

Published  in  elegant  form,  with  Frontispiece. 

POETICAL  LACON :  or  Aphorisms  from  the  Poets.    38  cts. 
BOND'S  Golden  Maxims.    31  cts. 
CLARKE'S  Scripture  Promises.     Complete.    38  cts. 
ELIZABETH  ;  or  the  Exiles  of  Siberia.    31  cts. 
GOLDSMITH'S  Vicar  of  Wakefield.    38  cts. 

Essays.    38  cts. 

GEMS  from  American  Poets.    38  cts. 
HANNAH  MORE'S  Private  Devotions.    31  cts. 

■ Practical  Piety.    2  vols.    75  cts. 

HEMANS'  Domestic  Affections.    31  cts 
HOFFMAN'S  Lays  of  the  Hudson,  &c.    38  cts. 
.TOHNSON'S  History  of  Rasselas.    38  cts. 
MANUAL  of  Matrimony.    31  cts. 
MOORE'S  Lallah  Rookh.    38  cts. 

Melodies.     Comple'e.    38  cts. 

i'AUIi  and  Virginia.    31  cts. 

POLLOK'S  Course  of  Time.    38  cts. 

PURE  Gold  from  the  Rivers  of  Wisdom.    38  eta. 

THOMSON'S  Seasons.    38  cts. 

TOKEN  of  the  Heart.— Do.  of  Affection.— Do.  of  RememlKTyBee.— Do  of  ¥n&aM 

ship. — Do.  of  Love;  each,  31  cts. 
USEFCL  Letter  Writer.    38  cts. 
WILSON'S  Sacra  Privata.    31  cts. 
Young's  Night  Thoughts.    38  cts. 


D.  Appleton  4*  Co.'s  Publications. 


NEW   ILLUSTRATED 
JUVENILES. 

AUNT  FANNY'S  STORY 
BOOK.    Illustrated.     16mo.       -$ 

THE  CHILD  S  TRESENT.  Il- 
lustrated.    16mo.      ' 

HOWITT'S  PICTURE  AND 
VERSE  BOOK.  Illustrated  with 
100  plates.    75  cts. ;  gilt     -        -  1 

HOME  FOR  THE  HOLIDAYS. 
lilustfated.     4to.,  25  cts. ;    cloth 

^ORY  OF  JOAN  OF  ARC. 
By  R.  M.  Evans.  With  23  illus- 
trations.    16mo. 

ROBINSON  CRUSOE.  Pictorial 
Edition.    SOOplatpg.    8vo.         -  1 

THE  CARAVAN  ;  A  COLLEC- 
TION OF  TALES  AND  STO- 
RIES FROM  THE  GERMAN. 
Translated  by  G.  P.  Quacken- 
boss.    Illustrated  by  Orr.  16mo. 

INNOCENCE  OF  CHILDHOOD. 
By  Mrs.   Colman.      Illustrated 

HOME  RECREATIONS,  com- 
prisirhg  Travels  and  Adventures, 
&c.  Colored  Illustrations.  Kimo. 

FIRESIDE  FAIRIES.  A  New 
Story  Book.  My  Miss  Susan  Pin- 
dar.   Finely  Illustrated.     16mo. 

STORY  OF  LITTLE  JOHN. 
Trans,  from  the  French.    Illus. 

LIVES  AND"  ANECDOTES  OF 
ILLUSTRIOUS   MEN.     16mo. 

UNCLE  JOHN'S  PANORAMIC 

PICTURE  BOOKS.   Six  kinds, 

25  CIS.  each ;  half-cloth 

HOLIDAY  HOUSE.      Tales,  bv 

Catherine  Sinclair.    Illustrated 

PUSS  IN  BOOTS.    Finely  illus. 

by  O.  Speckter.    50c.  ;  ex.  git.  - 

TALES  AND  STORIES  for  Boys 

and    Girls.      By  Mary   Howiti 

AMERICAN     HISTORICAL 

TALES  for  Youth.    16mo. 


75 

50 

75 

75 

75 

75 

LIBRARY  FOR  MY  YOUNG 
COUNTRYMEN. 

ADVENTURES  of  Captain  John 
Smith.  By  the  Author  of  Uncle 
Philip 38 

ADVENTURES  of  Daniel  Boon. 
By  do.  -        -        -        -        -      38 

DAWNINGS  of  Genius.  By  Anne 
Pratt 38 

LIFE  and  Adventures  of  Henfy 
Hudson.  By  the  Author  of  Uncle 
Philip 3S 

LIFE  and  Adventures  of  Heman 
Cortez.    By  do.    -        -        -        -      3£ 

PHILIP  RANDOLPH.  A  Tale 
of  Virginia.    By  Mary  Gertrude.      38 

ROWAN'S  History  of  the  French 
Revolution.    2  vols.    ...      75 

SOUTHEY'S  Life  of  Cromwell 


TALES  FOR  THE  PEOPLE 
AND  THEIR  CHILDREN. 

ALICE  FRANKLIN.     By  Mary 

Howitt $   a 

LOVE  AND  MONEY.  By  do.  -  » 
HOPE  ON,  HOPE  EVER !  Do.  31 
LITTLE   COIN,  MUCH   CARE. 

By  do. 3! 

MY  OWN  STORY.  By  do.  -  3i 
MY  UNCLE,  THE  CLOCKMA- 

KER.  By  do.  -  -  -  -  31 
NO    SENSE    LIKE    COMMON 

SENSE.  By  do.  ...  3 
SOWING  AND  REAPING.  Do.  3 
STRIVE  AND  THRIVE.  By  do.  3 
THE     TWO     APPRENTICES. 

By  do. 3 

WHICH  IS  THE  WISER  7  Do.  3 
WHO  SHALL  BE  GREATEST  7 

By  do. 3 

WORK  AND  WAGES.    By  do.      3 
CROFTON  BOYS,  The.   By  Har- 
riet Mariineau      ....      3 
DANGERS  OF  DINING  OUT. 

By  Mrs.  Ellis       ....      3 
FIRST  IMPRESSIONS.    By  do. 
MINISTER'S  FAMILY.     By  do. 
SOMMERVILLE  HALL.    By  do. 
DOMESTIC  TALES.      By  Han- 

nah  More.    2  vols. 
EARLY  FRIENDSHIP.  By  Mrs. 

Copley 

FARMER'S  DAUGHTER,  Tne. 

By  Mrs.  Cameron 
LOOKING-GLASS    FOR    THE 

MIND.    Many  plates 
MASTERMAN      READY.      By 

Capt.  Marryat.    3  vols.     -        -  1 
PEASANT  AND  THE  PRINCE. 

By  H.  Martineau 
POPLAR    GROVE.      By    Mrs. 


Copley 
-.EI 


By 


SETTLERS  IN  CANADA. 
Capt.  Marryalt.    2  vols.      - 

TIRED  OF  HOUSEKEEPING. 
By  T.  S.  Arthur 

TWIN  SISTERS,  The.  By  Mrs. 
Sandham 

YOUNG  STUDENT.  By  Ma- 
dame Guizot,    3  vols.        -        -  1 

SECOND  SERIES. 

CHANCES    AND     CHANGES. 

By  Charles  Burdett     - 

NEVER  TOO  LATE.    By  do.    - 

GOLDMAKER'S  VILLAGE.  By 
H.  Zschokke        .... 

OCEAN  WORK,  ANCIENT 
AND  MODERN.  By  J.  H. 
Wright 

THE  MISSION  ;  or.  Scenes  in  Af- 
rica.  By  Capt.  Marryatt.  2  vols. 

STORY  OF  A  GENIUS       -        - 


38 


D.  Applelon  Sf  CoJs  Publications. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 
A.CTON,  or  the  Circle  of  Life.         SI  25 
AGNELL'S  Book   of  Chess.      A 
Complete  Guide  to  the  Game. 
Steel  Illustrations.    12rao.  -150 

APPLETONS'  Library  Manual ;  a 
valuable  book  of  reference  for  the 
book  buyer  and  seller.  500  pp., 
8vo.,  paper  cover,  $1 ;  half  roan    1  25 

APPLETONS'  New  and  Complete 
United  States  Traveller's  Guide, 
including  the  Canadas,&c.  Near- 
ly 50  Maps.    16mo. 

APPLETONS'  Southern  &  West- 
em  Guide,  with  Maps  of  the 
Routes  and  Plans  of  the  Principal 
Cities.    16mo.  1  00 

APPLETONS'  Northern  and  East- 
em  Traveller's  Guide,  with  30 
Maps  of  Routes,  Plana  of  Cities, 
«fec.    16mo.  -       -       -       -  1  25 

ARNOLD'S  Miscellaneous  Works  2  00 

BALLET  GIRL,  The  Natural  His- 
tory  of  By  Albert  Smith.  With 
Illustrations.    18mo.        -  -      25 

BLANCHARD'S  Heads  and  Tales 
of  Travellers.    18mo.  -       -      25 

CHAPMAN'S  Instructions  on  the 
Use  of  the  American  Rifle  -  1  25 

DELEUZE'S  Treatise  ou  Ammal 
Magnetism  -        -        -        -  1  00 

ELLIS'S  Mothers,  Daughters,  and 
Women  of  England.    Each       -      50 

FROST  (Professor).  Book  of  Good 
Examples.  12mo.    Illustrated    -  1  00 

FROST.  Book  of  Anecdotes.  12mo. 
Illustrated        -       -        -  -  1  00 

FROST.  Book  of  Illustrious  Me- 
chanics.    12mo.    Illustrated     -  1  00 

GENT,  (The  Natural  History  of). 
By  Albert  Smith.   Illustrated     -     25 

GRANT'S  Memoirs  of  an  Ameri- 
can Lady.  12mo       -        -  -      75 

CUIZOT'  S  Democracy  in  France  -     25 

HOBSON.  My  Uncle  Hobson&L      50 

KIP'S  Christmas  Holidays  in 
Rome.  12mo.  -        -  -  1  00 

IAMB'S  Final  Memorials.  Edited 
by  Talfourd.    12mo.  -        -      75 

jlANMAN'S  Summer  in  the  Wil- 
derness.   12mo.  -       -       -      63 

*  EG  ER'S  History  of  Animal  Mag- 
netism.   12mo.        -       -  -  I  25 

POWELL'S  Living  Authors  of 
England.    12mo.         -        -        -  1  00 

REPUBLIC  of  the  United  States. 
Its  Duties,  <fec.    12mo.    -  -      75 

ROGET'S  Economic  Chess  Board 
Companion,  in  Case       -  $    60 

SAWYER'S  Plea  for  Amusement     50 

SELECT  Italian  Comedies.  12mo.  1  00 


SOMETHING  FOR  EVERY  BO- 
DY.   By  Robert  Carlton.  12mo.      7l 

SOUTHGATE  (Bishop).  Visit  to 
Syrian  Church  -        -        -  1  00 

TUCKERMAN'S  American  Artist 
Life  -       -       -       -       -  -     76 

WANDERINGS  in  the  Western 
World;  or,  the  European  in 
America 75 

WAYLAND'S  Real  Life  m  Eng- 
land      38 

WHIPPLE'S  Essays  and  Reviews. 
2  vols.    12mo.         -       -  -  2  25 

WARNER'S  Rudimental  Lessons 
in  Music.    ISmo.     -       -  •     ^') 

PrimaryNoteReader      ao 


25 


25 


-     75 


60 


WOMAN'S  WORTH  ;  or  Hints  to 
Raise  the  Female  Character.  By 
a  Lady.    ISmo.  -       -       -      38 

SCIENCE  AND  USEFUL  ARTS. 

ANSTED'S  Gold  Seeker's  Ma- 
nual,   l^no.    -       .       - 

ARNOT'S  Gothic  Architecture, 
applied  to  Modem  Residences, 

BOURNE'S  Catechism  of  the 
Steam  Engine.    ISmo. 

BOUISSANGAULT'S  Rural  Eco- 
nomy        -        -        -       - 

BYRNE'S  New  Method  of  Calcu- 
lating Logarithms.  16mo.  -  1  00 

Dictionary  of  Machine, 

Mechanic  Engine  Work.    Pub- 
lishing.  In  numbers,  each  -        -      25 

COOLEY'S  Cyclopaedia  of  6000 
Practical  Receipts,  in  all 
branches  of  Arts,  Manufactures, 
and  Trades  .... 

FALKNER'S  Farmer's  Manual. 

FARMER'S  TREASURE.  (The) 
A  Manual  of  Agriculture  -      76 

FRESENIUS'  QualitaUve  Chemi- 
cal  Analysis        -        •        -        -  1  00 

HODGE  on  the  Steam  Engine.  48 
plates  10  00 

HALLECK'S  Elements  of  Milita- 
tary   Art   and   Science.      lUus.  1  50 

LEFEVRE'S  Beauties  of  Modem 
Architecture.    48  Plates  -  6  00 

MARSHALL'S  Farmer's  Hand 
Book 1  00 

MILES  on  the  Horse's  Foot  -     21 

PARNELL'S  Chemistry  applied 
to  the  Arts  -        -        -        -  1  00 

STEWART'S  Stable  Economy    -  1  00 

THOMSON  on  the  Food  of  Ani- 
mals and  Man     -       -       -       -     60 

URE'S  Dictionary  of  At  is  and  Sci- 
ences, with  Supplement.  New 
edition.    1  vol.  -       -       •  0  00 

WILSON  on  Healthy  Skin.  Illus.  1  00 


2  25 
50 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  belo 


^K^ 


*e 


^9*8 


LD  21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 


YB  27728 


&1 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


